April 23, 2012
St George's Day - A Speech
England and the English - Rudyard Kipling, Speech to the Royal Society of St. George: April 1920
...(An) Englishman is like a built-up gun barrel, all one temper though welded of many different materials, and he has strong powers of resistance. Roman, Dane, Norman, Papist, Cromwellian, Stuart, Hollander, Hanoverian, Upper Class, Middle Class, Democracy, each in turn through a thousand years experimented on him and tried to make him to their own liking. He met them each in turn with a large silent toleration, which each in turn mistook for native stupidity. He gave them each in turn a fair trial and, when he had finished with them, an equally fair dismissal. As an additional safeguard he devised for himself a social system in watertight compartments, so arranged that neither the waters of popular emotion nor the fires of private revenge could sweep his ship of State from end to end. If, in spite of this, the domestic situation became too much for him he could always take a ship and go to sea, and there seek or impose the peace which the Papal Legate, or the Mediaeval Trade Union, or a profligate Chancellor of the Exchequer denied to him at home. And thus, gentlemen—not in a fit of absence of mind—was the Empire born. It was the outcome of the relaxations of persecuted specialists—men who for one cause or another were unfit for the rough and tumble of life at home. They did it for change and rest, exactly as we used to take our summer holidays, and, like ourselves, they took their national habits with them. For example, they did not often gather together with harps and rebecks to celebrate their national glories, or to hymn their national heroes. When they did not take them both for granted, they, like ourselves, generally denied the one and did their best to impeach the other. But, by some mysterious rule-of-thumb magic, they did establish and maintain reasonable security and peace among simple folk in very many parts of the world, and that, too, without overmuch murder, robbery, oppression, or torture.One secret of the success of the English was, perhaps, their imperturbable tolerance. A race that has been persecuted, or—what comes to the same thing—bored, by every persecuted refugee to whom they have ever given an asylum, naturally learns to tolerate anything. Their immensely mixed origin, too, made the English in a very real sense “akin to all the universe”, and sympathetic in their dumb way with remote Gods and strange people. Above all, their long insular experience of imported brain-storms had taught them that men should not try to do better than good for fear lest worse than bad might follow. And there has been enough of worse than bad in the world for the last few years....
You can't improve on the master, the rest is worth reading.
Full text below:
England and the English - Rudyard Kipling
Speech to the Royal Society of St. George given by Rudyard Kipling: April 1920
I THINK this is an occasion on which it behoves us all to walk rather circumspectly. If you will let me, I will try and tell you why. About sixteen hundred years ago, when Rome was mistress of the world and the Picts and the Scots lived on the other side of the Wall that ran from Newcastle to Carlisle, the story goes that Rome allowed all those peoples one night in the year in which they could say aloud exactly what they thought of Rome, without fear of the consequences. So then, on that one night of the year, they would creep out of the heather in droves and light their little wandering fires and criticise their Libyan Generals and their Roman Pontiffs and the Eastern camp followers, who looked down on them from the top of the great high unbreakable Roman Wall sixteen hundred years ago.
To-day, Imperial Rome is dead. The Wall is down and the Picts and the Scots are on this side of it, but thanks to our Royal Society of St. George, there still remains one night in the year when the English can creep out of their hiding-places and whisper to each other exactly what we think about ourselves. No, it is not quite safe to criticise our masters—our masters who tax us and educate us, and try us, and minister so abundantly to what they instruct us our wants ought to be. Since these masters of ours have not yet quite the old untroubled assurance of power and knowledge that made Rome so tolerant in the days when the Picts and the Scots lived on the other side of the Wall, we will confine ourselves to our own popular and widely recognised defects.
Some of our severest critics, who, of course, are of our own household, have said that there never was such a thing as the English Race—that it is at best the intolerably insolent outcome of ancient invasions and immigrations, freshened with more recent Continental gaol-deliveries. Far be it from me to traverse such statements. I give them on no less authority than that of the late Mr. Daniel Defoe, Liveryman of the City of London, author of Robinson Crusoe and of a pamphlet called The True-born Englishman. He deals very faithfully with the English. So faithfully that, in deference to the susceptibilities of some races, I will not give his version of the Englishman’s pedigree, but in his summing up of the true-born Englishman, Defoe says:
A true-born Englishman’s a contradiction,
In speech an irony, in fact a fiction,
A metaphor intended to express
A man akin to all the Universe.
In that last line it seems to me that Defoe slips into a blessing where he meant to curse, because a man “akin to all the Universe” cannot be wholly lost. He must have some points of contact with humanity. And the Englishman has had several.
The Phoenicians taught him the rudiments of shopkeeping; the Romans taught him love of sport by hiring him to fight wild beasts in their arenas. Under the Heptarchy he studied Social Reform, which in those unenlightened days consisted of raising levies on capital in order to buy off the Heathen of the North from taking direct action against English industries. He next took a three-hundred-years’ course of colloquial and Law French under eminent Norman teachers. He did not learn that language then or since, but it left him with a profound respect, based on experience, for his neighbours across the Channel, and a conviction, which time has deepened, that they were the only other people in the world who mattered.
For five hundred years his affairs, domestic and foreign, were controlled by French, Italian, Spanish, with occasional Austrian, politico-ecclesiastical authorities, who tried to teach him that “this realm of England” was but part of a vast international organisation destined to embrace, protect, and instruct all mankind. He escaped from those embraces only to find himself subjected to the full rigours of the Puritan Conscience, which at that time was largely directed by gentle men from Geneva, Leyden, Amsterdam, and the Low Countries. While thus engaged he was, under pretext of union, finally and fatally subjugated by the Scot. A few years later he embarked on the swelling tide of party politics in all their attendant purity; since which he has seldom been allowed to look back, and never forward.
I submit that such a nightmare of national experiences would have driven an unmixed race to the edge of lunacy. But the Englishman is like a built-up gun barrel, all one temper though welded of many different materials, and he has strong powers of resistance. Roman, Dane, Norman, Papist, Cromwellian, Stuart, Hollander, Hanoverian, Upper Class, Middle Class, Democracy, each in turn through a thousand years experimented on him and tried to make him to their own liking. He met them each in turn with a large silent toleration, which each in turn mistook for native stupidity. He gave them each in turn a fair trial and, when he had finished with them, an equally fair dismissal. As an additional safeguard he devised for himself a social system in watertight compartments, so arranged that neither the waters of popular emotion nor the fires of private revenge could sweep his ship of State from end to end. If, in spite of this, the domestic situation became too much for him he could always take a ship and go to sea, and there seek or impose the peace which the Papal Legate, or the Mediaeval Trade Union, or a profligate Chancellor of the Exchequer denied to him at home. And thus, gentlemen—not in a fit of absence of mind—was the Empire born. It was the outcome of the relaxations of persecuted specialists—men who for one cause or another were unfit for the rough and tumble of life at home. They did it for change and rest, exactly as we used to take our summer holidays, and, like ourselves, they took their national habits with them. For example, they did not often gather together with harps and rebecks to celebrate their national glories, or to hymn their national heroes. When they did not take them both for granted, they, like ourselves, generally denied the one and did their best to impeach the other. But, by some mysterious rule-of-thumb magic, they did establish and maintain reasonable security and peace among simple folk in very many parts of the world, and that, too, without overmuch murder, robbery, oppression, or torture.
One secret of the success of the English was, perhaps, their imperturbable tolerance. A race that has been persecuted, or—what comes to the same thing—bored, by every persecuted refugee to whom they have ever given an asylum, naturally learns to tolerate anything. Their immensely mixed origin, too, made the English in a very real sense “akin to all the universe”, and sympathetic in their dumb way with remote Gods and strange people. Above all, their long insular experience of imported brain-storms had taught them that men should not try to do better than good for fear lest worse than bad might follow. And there has been enough of worse than bad in the world for the last few years. Our national weakness for keeping to the easiest road to the latest possible minute sooner than inconvenience ourselves or our neighbours has been visited upon us full tale. After ninety-nine years of peace the English were given ninety-six hours in which to choose whether they would buy a little longer peace from the Heathen of the North, as some of their ancestors had done, or whether they would make peace with them as our King Alfred made it with the Danes. It was a race that had almost forgotten how to say “No” to anybody who said “Yes” in a sufficiently loud voice. It seemed as if it had quite forgotten that it had broken a Church, killed a King, closed a Protectorate and exiled another King, sooner than be driven where it did not want to go. But when its hour came, once again it decided to go its own way, and once again by instinct. For it had prepared nothing—it had foreseen nothing. It had been assured that not only was there no need for preparation against war, but that the mere thought of preparation against war was absurd where it was not criminal. Therefore, through the first two years of the war, it was necessary to throw up a barricade of the dead bodies of the nation’s youth behind which the most elementary preparations could be begun.
There has been no such slaughter of the English in English history, but the actual war was no more than a large-scale repetition of previous national experiences. If an Elizabethan Statesman (or adventurer) could have returned to England during the war he would, I think, in a very short time have been able to pick up his office work almost where he dropped it. His reports and his maps would have been a little more detailed, but he would have been surprisingly abreast of the whole situation.
Where the old English influence had struck deep all the world over, he would have seen help and comfort hurried up to all the fronts from all the world over without count or tale, without word or bond to limit or confirm it. Where the old alien influences that he knew so well had persisted, or where the new influences directed by the old were at work, he would have seen, as he would have expected, all help for the war denied, withheld, or doled out grudgingly, piecemeal at a high price. He would have recognised that what held firm in the days of the Armada held firm at Armageddon: that what had broken beneath his hand then was rotten in our hand now. Bar a few minor differences of equipment, he would have felt just like any sailor or soldier returning to some bitterly familiar job of sea-patrol or trench life between ’14 and ’18. Like those men he would have taken for granted a great deal upon which other nations might have wasted valuable thought and attention. Our stories of Coronel and Zeebrugge, of the English county battalions not one year old that died to the last man as a matter of routine on the fronts that they were ordered to hold, would have moved him no more and no less than the little affair of Sir Richard Grenville off Flores, in the Revenge. That troopers of County Yeomanry in Mesopotamia, picked almost at random, could, single-handed and by sheer force of character, control and conciliate in a few days a turbulent Arab village, would have amazed him no more and no less than any tale of Panama, or of our first venture across the world, told him by Sir Francis Drake or any forgotten captain of the same age. Being of the breed he would have known the breed and would have taken the work of the breed for granted.
And herein, as I see it, lies the strength of the English—that they have behind them this continuity of immensely varied race-experience and race-memory, running equally through all classes back to the very dawn of our dawn. This imposes on them unconsciously, even while they deny or deride it, standards of achievement and comparison, hard perhaps, and perhaps a little unsympathetic, but not low—not low—and, as all earth is witness, not easily to be lowered. And that is the reason why in the things nearest our hearts we praise so little and criticise so lavishly. It is the only compliment which an Englishman dare pay to his country.
As you know, our standards of achievement and comparison do not appear on the surface; nor are they much in men’s mouths. When they are, they are mostly translated into terms of sport or the slang of our various games. But whenever the English deal in earnest with each other, or with the outside world, those standards are taken for granted. And it is by the things that we take for granted without word that we live. It was taken for granted during the war that every day was St. George’s Day, on one or other of our seven fronts.
And now, we and our kin, after these great years, are sick, dizzy, and shaken—like all convalescents, a little inclined to pity ourselves, a little inclined to stay as long as possible on a diet of invalid slops, and a little more than inclined to mistake the hysteria of convalescence for the symptoms of returning life and thought. Here also instinct tells us that the weight, the range, and the evenly spread richness of our national past should ballast us sufficiently to navigate through whatever storms—or brain-storms—there may be ahead. And we are threatened with several.
One school of thought, Muscovite in origin, holds, as the Danes held twelve hundred years ago, that rapine and scientific torture will elevate our ideals, which up to the present have merely taught us to try to do our duty to our God and our neighbour. Others are content to work for the organised bankruptcy of whatsoever is of good repute, including the systematic betrayal of our friends, very much on the same lines as some people used to panic after every Crusade and every visitation of the plague. We are further promised an unparalleled outbreak of education, guaranteed to produce a standardised State-aided mind. The Church evolved almost a parallel system in the Middle Ages, which, much to her surprise, produced the Reformation.
Lastly, lest we should ever again lapse into our “pathetic contentment”, the breed which organised at a week’s notice to achieve the impossible and achieved it—by earth, sea, and air achieved it—is now, as a reward, to be ruthlessly reorganised in every detail of its life, walk, and conduct. That great work was begun by William the Conquerer, Anno Domini 1066, and has been before Committee or Commission ever since.
Norman, Papist, Cromwellian, Stuart, Hollander, Hanoverian, Upper Class, Middle Class, Democracy, have each in turn tried their fleeting hand on the “man akin to all the Universe”. From each in turn he has taken what he wanted; to each in turn he has given a fair trial; and, when he has quite finished, an equally fair dismissal.
What will he do in the future?. We are too near to the dust of the main battle to see clearly. We know that England is crippled by the loss and wastage of a whole generation, and that her position, from the civil point of view to-day, is the position of our armies in the darkest days of the war. That is to say, all leave is stopped for any man who can manage to stand up to his job, no matter how sick or stale he may feel himself to be, and there is undreamed-of promotion for untried men who, simply because they are not dead, will now have to face heavier responsibility, longer hours, and criticism that certainly will not grow milder as the years pass. But no miracles have occurred.
This world of ours, which some of us in their zeal to do better than good have helped to create, but which we must all inherit, is not a new world, but the old world grown harder. The wheel has come full circle. The whole weight of the world at the present moment lies again, as it used to lie in the time of our fathers, on the necks of two nations, England and France. The sole force under God’s good Providence that can meet this turn of our fate, is not temperament, not opportunism, nor any effort to do better than good, but character and again character—such mere ingrained, common-sense, hand-hammered, loyal strength of character as one humbly dares to hope that fifteen hundred years of equality of experience have given us.
If this hope be true—and because we know the breed in our hearts we know that it is true—if this hope be justified, our children’s children, looking back through the luminous years to where we here stumble and falter, will say to themselves: “Was it possible—was it possible that the English of that age did not know, could not see, dared not even guess, to what height of strength, wisdom, and enduring honour they had lifted their land?”
But we will be circumspect! My lords, ladies and gentlemen—for what there is of it—for such as it is—and for what it may be worth—will you drink to England and the English?
Posted by The Englishman at 7:12 AM
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December 21, 2007
Congratulations
The record-breaking age of Elizabeth, longest-lived monarch to reign over us - Times Online
I don't think we realise how lucky as a nation we have been to have had and to continue to have her reigning over us.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:04 AM
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December 14, 2007
Spending within our means
Salmond accused over delay on figures showing 'financial black hole' - Scotsman.com News
Labour made the charge after it was revealed that the Scottish Government has delayed by six months the publication of the report that calculates the gap between expenditure and revenue north of the Border.
The Government Expenditure and Revenue in Scotland document last year revealed an £11.2 billion "black hole" in Scotland's finances,..
So that is the real cost of Scotland... wonder where they make up the missing money from? Meanwhile in other news the SNP continue to throw English money around ...
LOCAL authorities are to receive above-inflation cash settlements from the Scottish Government – enough to allow them to fund a council-tax freeze across the country.
They will get rises ranging from more than 7.5 per cent to 3.4 per cent, John Swinney, the finance secretary, told MSPs yesterday.
And in a surprise move, he revealed the Scottish Government was to consider giving extra funding to Edinburgh to recognise its status as a capital city.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:45 AM
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December 13, 2007
British Heroes For Today
Morgan Stanley Great Britons '07... each has displayed the core British characteristics of adaptability, modesty, humour and determination. Together they say more about what it means to be British than a single definition.....
And here is 2007 shortlist
Damien Hirst (artist)
Sir Ian McKellen (actor)
JK Rowling (author)
Sir Ronald Cohen (founder, Apax Partners)
Sir John Rose (chief executive, Rolls-Royce)
Michael Spencer (founder, ICAP)
Shami Chakrabarti (director, Liberty)
Sir Ranulph Fiennes (explorer)
Marion Janner (founder, Star Wards Project)
Michael Boyd (artistic director, RSC)
Stephen Fry (actor and presenter)
Jonathan Ive (senior vice president of industrial design, Apple Inc.)
Jeremy Leggett (chief executive, Solarcentury)
Sir Jonathan Porritt (co-founder, Forum for the future)
Tim Smit (co-founder and chief executive, Eden Project)
Professor Colin Blakemore
Professor Sir Martin Evans
Professor Sir David King
Lewis Hamilton (F1 driver)
Ricky Hatton (boxer)
Sir Robin Knox-Johnston (sailor)
What a depressing bunch, one or two or deserve to be on it I suppose but if they are what it takes to be British count me out. To describe most of them as oh so trendy establishment lapdogs would be insulting to lapdogs, but then the Bank wants winners who will put on the monkey suit and smile along side the Chief Exec for the publicity shots. As an aside I note none of them actually serve the country at the sharp end where bullets fly, so who should be on a real Heroes List? My quick suggestions, yours are welcomed.
Arts - J K Rowling is as good a choice as any - she has achieved her success of old fashioned books by unfashionable hard work without suckling the public teat.
Business - Heroes? - you must be joking.
Campaigning - Countryside Alliance Chief Executive Simon Hart
Creatives - Stephen Fry as he would be amusing at the awards dinner.
Environment - Christopher Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley for bringing some sense to the climate change debate in a very British way
Science & Innovation - Heston Blumenthal for making science digestible - try his spaghetti carbonara
Sport - Delete, insert Armed Forces.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:03 AM
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December 11, 2007
Abroad News From Home
Mohammed to beat Jack as top UK boys' name - Telegraph
Mohammed is set to overtake Jack as the most popular boys' name in Britain as a result of the high birth rate in Muslim families, which is driving the British population to a record high...
Economic migrants from eastern Europe have also helped to boost the population, which is set to rise to 65 million by 2017 - an increase of five million. By 2031, the population will be over 70 million....
Posted by The Englishman at 6:55 AM
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Union Fair Dealings is all we ask
Scotsman.com News - Cameron warns of 'ugly stain of separatism' both sides of Border
"I have a message for them: I will never let you succeed."
He added: "We must confront and defeat the ugly stain of separatism that is seeping through the Union flag."
Better an imperfect union than a broken one. Better an imperfect union than a perfect divorce.
Cameron is on dangerous ground here as he tries to bolster the Scottish Tories. The English don't want independence, all they want is fairness. The union as the larger umbrella unit is great, but when it comes to our rulers Normans such as Cameron should remember that the majority of us are Saxons. And as Kipling said:
....before you go over to rule it I want you to understand this:–
“The Saxon is not like us Normans. His manners are not so polite.
But he never means anything serious till he talks about justice and right.
When he stands like an ox in the furrow–with his sullen set eyes on your own,
And grumbles, ‘This isn’t fair dealing,’ my son, leave the Saxon alone.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:41 AM
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December 9, 2007
74% of the English call themselves English
We love Britain, but Union's future is uncertain - Telegraph
a large majority English voters believe everyone in the United Kingdom is better off remaining aboard the good ship Britannia - but many think it won't be long before the order goes out to abandon ship
More than six out of 10 English voters say they feel "British", according to a new opinion poll.
What England thinks about Britain [PDF]
The Telegraph is campaigning for us to call ourselves British "to rally the people of Great Britain around the 1707 Acts of Union. " And are using this 62% figure "call themselves British" to support it. They only get this by including the 41% who call themselves English and British equally. Using the same figures it could equally validly say that 74% call themselves English.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:20 AM
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December 4, 2007
Scots recognise West Lothian
Scots don't want MPs voting on English affairs - Telegraph
A majority of Scots believe the system that allows their MPs to vote on English-only matters is unjust, a poll released today shows.
The simple belief in "fairness" is for most people a guiding principle so it doesn't surprise me that the Scots recognise what is fair and what isn't, of course "fairness" is a concept that is foreign to the politicians and merely a sound bite word they try to grasp when it is in their interests and ignore when it isn't.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:45 AM
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December 3, 2007
Rebellious Scots to crush.
National anthem 'could be anti-Scots' - Telegraph
The national anthem is not inclusive and should perhaps be changed, Lord Goldsmith, the former attorney general now leading a citizenship review for Gordon Brown, has suggested.
He said that there were problems with some of the later verses of the anthem, which refer to "rebellious Scots" being crushed.
Nice to know that Fatty Goldsmith has other things to worry about apart from his pension and why doesn't the Telegraph actually print the sixth verse?
Lord grant that Marshal Wade
May by thy mighty aid Victory bring.
May he sedition hush,
And like a torrent rush,
Rebellious Scots to crush.
God save the Queen!
It certainly sung with gusto here before the Calcutta Cup game...
Of course the real problem is that it is the British Anthem and England and English teams need their own.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:51 AM
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November 25, 2007
The Crowded Future of England
UK population could soar to 90m - Telegraph
The population of the United Kingdom could soar to 90 million by the middle of the century, government statisticians will say this week.
Such an increase, driven by immigration and a rising birthrate, would add 50 per cent to today's population...
The rising of forecasts reflects the surge in immigration in the past two years, in particular from Poland and other new EU states in eastern Europe. Official statisticians now expect net immigration to run at 190,000 a year for years to come.
A baby boom among immigrant women has forced the GAD to raise its birthrate estimates. Women are now expected to have, on average, 1.84 babies each over a lifetime. The average for British-born women is 1.6 and for foreign-born women 2.2.
The highest birthrate in the UK is among Pakistani-born women, who have an average of 4.7 children each. Last year, 22 per cent of births in the UK were to foreign-born women.
As I pointed out before this isn't a UK or British problem , the entire rise in population will happen in England only.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:58 AM
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November 22, 2007
The Jelly-bellied Flag-flapper gets his motto
Maverick streak makes mockery of hunt for a British motto - Times Online
The people have spoken. After a ground-breaking experiment in popular democracy, readers of The Times have chosen a national motto for Gordon Brown’s New Britain.
Or have they? For, the suggestion that attracted most votes in our poll on Comment Central, a Times Online blog, is perhaps better described not as a motto but as an anti-motto: “No motto please, we’re British”.
In other words, a resounding raspberry to Gordon Brown’s search for a statement of British values that underpin his constitutional reforms.
In truth, the entire outcome makes grim reading for Mr Brown. The two most earnest mottoes among the top ten, submitted from the minority who appeared to treat the exercise seriously, were never in the running....
My faith in the British is restored, who can resist a bit of Kipling at this:
And so he worked towards his peroration - which, by the way, he used later with overwhelming success at a meeting of electors - while they sat, flushed and uneasy, in sour disgust. After many many words, he reached for the cloth-wrapped stick and thrust one hand in his bosom. This - this was the concrete symbol of their land - worthy of all honour and reverence! Let no boy look on this flag who did not purpose to worthily add to its imperishable lustre. He shook it before them - a large calico Union Jack, staring in all three colours, and waited for the thunder of applause that should crown his effort.They looked in silence...What, in the name of everything caddish, was he driving at, who waved that horror before their eyes? Happy thought! Perhaps he was drunk...
They discussed the speech in the dormitories. There was not one dissentient voice. He was further (I give the barest handful from great store) a Flopshus Cad, an Outrageous Stinker, a Jelly-bellied Flag-flapper (this was Stalky's contribution), and several other things which it is not seemly to put down.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:45 AM
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"Don't believe a word I say"- Gordon Brown and other Scottish news
Scotsman.com News - Scotland - Where in the world is there an answer? Well, nowhere
It has often been asserted that there must be examples of other states in the world that have multi-layered democratic structures which create the same anomalies as the West Lothian Question; and, therefore, that they could provide the answer.
So, is there a Lower Saint Lawrence question in Quebec or a Tarragona question in Catalonia? Alas, no - or rather not really. ....
It seems, therefore, that there is not an off the shelf solution we can borrow from overseas.
Charlie Jeffery, professor of politics at Edinburgh University, says: "There is a spectrum of possible models from other countries which is worth looking at, but in the end the UK has got to find a bespoke solution, and the most important part of that is finding a solution for England.
As he is from Scotland might he I suggest that he looks for the solution for England closer to home, like give England the same rights as Scotland? Oh no, I forgot;
"England, because of its size and power, is much more of a problem than the West Lothian Question."
Call to scrap Barnett Formula
CONTROVERSY over the way public funds are distributed across the UK erupted yesterday during a heated political debate.
Graeme Stringer, the Labour MP for Manchester Blackley, called for the Barnett Formula to be scrapped and replaced with a needs-based system, during a Commons debate he initiated.
Mr Stringer accused his own party of "unintentional dishonesty" in the way it highlighted the Barnett Formula when campaigning in Scotland.
It had been publicised north of the Border, but kept out of Labour's manifesto in 2005 because it was more advantageous to Scots than in the rest of the UK, he said....
Stewart Hosie, the SNP's Treasury spokesman, warned the government not to cut Scotland's share of funding. "This debate is not about Scottish funding, it's really about English frustration at Gordon Brown," he said.....
Mr Brown also inadvertently waded into the controversy yesterday during Prime Minister's Questions, when he appeared to misunderstand how the population-based formula works. He told the Commons the "Barnett Formula is based on the needs of each different part [of the UK]."
When quizzed later, his spokesman replied that the Prime Minister was not expecting "his comments to be subjected to a literal interpretation".
So Gordon Brown is upset that we take the words he says in the Commons as meaning what they say.....
Posted by The Englishman at 6:31 AM
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November 21, 2007
Fenian Bigots
Scotsman.com News - Outrage after Celtic fans' champion defends pro-IRA chants at matches
THE head of a Celtic supporters' trust has provoked outrage by defending the singing of pro-IRA songs by the club's fans during matches.
Dr Jeanette Findlay, who is a research fellow and economics lecturer at Glasgow University,who chairs the Celtic Trust, which represents supporters and small shareholders, claimed chants about the IRA were "songs from a war of independence".... I don't call those pro-terrorist songs. What history tells us is that it is facile to say that politics and sport will ever be separated."
Mr Campbell said he was not referring to songs such as The Fields of Athenry, but to "actually chanting: 'The IRA'."
She replied: "Many of those songs are songs from what was essentially a war of independence going back over a hundred years." ....
The controversy came on the day the Scottish Government launched its Kick Out Bigotry campaign.
I don't remember her coming to the defence of Donald Findlay, the mutton-chopped, bombastic QC and fervent Rangers fan who starred in the infamous video of the side-burned ‘blue nose’, his tie askew, slurring out ‘The Sash’ at a post-match celebration provoked uproarious laughter in households up and down the country. At another event the QC told an audience of around 140 fans at the Larne Rangers Club: "It's very smoky in here tonight - has another f****** Pope died?"
But Findlay was forced to resign as Rangers’ vice-chairman and then suffered further indignity when he became the first rector at St Andrews to be denied an honorary degree from the university
Posted by The Englishman at 6:07 AM
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November 20, 2007
Congratulations
Today I will mainly be reading from the Castle's Library:
And a couple of pictures of the happy couple serving their country from it:
Posted by The Englishman at 7:03 AM
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November 19, 2007
Labour Scotch MP Demands English Regions
Scotsman.com News - The West Lothian Question: Labour MPs want answers
GORDON Brown is facing demands from his Scottish MPs to take action over the so-called "West Lothian Question", with some calling for the resurrection of English regional assemblies as the solution, The Scotsman can reveal....
To date, Scottish Labour MPs have largely stayed out of the debate, but some have now gone public with demands for action, increasing the pressure on Mr Brown to do something.
Ian Davidson, the Labour MP for Glasgow South West, said there were two related issues that had to be looked at: the balance of devolution and the financial settlement, which gives Scots about £1,500 more per head than England. Both were being used to stir up anti-Scottish opinion in England, he said.
He went on: "I think the proposals that we had before for regional assemblies seemed to me to be a way forward.
"The 'English votes for English issues' proposal is a recipe for some degree of chaos. We should be looking for some way of devolving power to the English regions. The first time we had a referendum for the Scottish Parliament, we didn't get it - so just because the referendum in the north-east [of England] went against the plan, it doesn't mean it should be rejected completely.
Fuck you, you slap headed porridge wog. You want to carve up and emasculate your southern neighbour for your own narrow political and nationalist motives. Read our lips, it is none of your fucking business how the English rule themselves, all we want is the chance to do so.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:31 AM
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November 16, 2007
Close the door on your way out please
Why are so many Britons emigrating? - Telegraph
Britain is experiencing the greatest exodus of its own nationals since before the First World War while immigration has reached unprecedented levels, new figures from the Office of National Statistics have revealed.
Last year, 207,000 British citizens, or one every three minutes, left the country while 510,000 foreigners arrived to stay for a year or more.
Since Labour came to power in 1997 1.8m British people have left...
Can't think why.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:46 AM
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November 15, 2007
English for beginners
Previously I posted on "Ladies of a certain persuasion" - on editing it I thought predilection was a better word, but then partiality, predisposition, proclivity, proneness, propensity and penchant all raised their hands as being more suitable. I can't make up my mind - what does the panel think?
Posted by The Englishman at 8:07 AM
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Bonjour, Welcomme, Buenos días
Bloggers from across the world will be able to widen their audiences from today, after Google launched a free translation service.
Anyone wanting to reach foreign readers can simply download a piece of software from translate.google.com and add it to their blog or website.
There, done, over on the right - I might have to tidy it up as it seems to be looking a bit strange but anyway it finally nails any need for an English bloke to learn any foreign languages, not that I ever did...
Posted by The Englishman at 6:46 AM
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November 14, 2007
The covenant is breaking
Troops get rough deal, says Chief of Defence - Telegraph
'Britain doesn't care about its soldiers'
The covenant between the Armed Forces and the British people is under growing threat from the poor conditions and lack of understanding shown to troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, the Chief of the Defence Staff warns today.
Now the flags have been folded and poppies discarded it is easy to forget again the troops and their sacrifices. Let's try not to. Remind the politicians to honour the covenant at every opportunity.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:52 AM
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November 12, 2007
Dipping in the Sporran
Scotsman.com News - Scotland - SNP 'needs another £1bn' to meet pledges
MAJOR manifesto commitments by the SNP government cannot be met unless £1 billion extra is found for Scotland's local authorities, the finance secretary John Swinney was warned last night.
Scotsman.com News - Scottish National Party - I'll make you £10K richer says Swinney
EVERY household in Scotland will be £10,000 a year better off within a decade, Finance Secretary John Swinney claimed yesterday.
Don't you just love this Governmental accounting. Of course some people are already benefiting by more than £10,000 of public largesse...
SCOTLAND'S best-paid public servants pocketed salary rises of almost five times the rate of inflation last year, it emerged yesterday.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:34 AM
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November 11, 2007
Remembrance Sunday
Posted by The Englishman at 11:11 AM
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Kipling
Five War Epitaphs
I.. COMMON FORM
If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied.
II. THE BEGINNER
On the first hour of my first day
In the front trench I fell.
(Children in boxes at a play
Stand up to watch it well.)
III. THE REFINED MAN
I was of delicate mind. I stepped aside for my needs,
Disdaining the common office. I was seen from afar
and killed …
How is this matter for mirth? Let each man be judged
by his deeds.
I have paid my price to live with myself on the terms that
I willed.
IV. ‘EQUALITY OF SACRIFICE’
A. ‘I was a Have.’ B. ‘I was a “Have-not.”’
(Together) ‘What hast thou given which I have not?’
V. THE COWARD
I could not look on Death, which being known,
Men led me to him, blindfold and alone.
Posted by The Englishman at 1:00 AM
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November 10, 2007
Divorce Court News
Scotsman.com News - Politics - MPs throw spotlight on the West Lothian Question
WESTMINSTER will examine a proposed ban on Scots MPs voting on England-only matters at a committee hearing next week.
On Tuesday, the justice committee begins hearings on the aftermath of the devolution settlement, amid calls for Scots MPs to be barred from voting on measures which only affect England, such as in education and health.
..
The debate on why Scots MPs can vote on matters that affect only England, while English MPs cannot vote on devolved matters, has intensified in recent weeks.
A restriction on Scots MPs' voting rights would disqualify not just Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, but his Chancellor, Alistair Darling, and Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, from voting on key policies.
Of course any recommendations it makes will not be Tory ideas for Gordon to borrow.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:14 AM
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November 7, 2007
The Queen's Speech
So the Old Queen and Her Majesty announced the government's plans:
The Queen's speech: transcript - Telegraph
My Lords and Members of the House of Commons My Government will take forward policies to respond to the rising aspirations of the people of the United Kingdom; to ensure security for all; and to entrust more power to Parliament and the people.
So quite clear then this is the United Kingdom government's plans.
A Bill will be introduced to ensure that young people stay in education or training until age 18,
Whoops, first measure announced is England only, as are the plans to expand building of affordable homes (England only) and the right to tackle congestion by introducing road charges (everyone but Scotland). The pressure is building on Brown's Scottishness.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:01 AM
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November 6, 2007
The Enslavement of the English
In addition to my diatribe yesterday on educational conscription, something has just occured to me - this law will apply only in England. Only English children will have to stay in school until 18. Only English children will be deprived of their liberties and their freedom.
As such, when this law comes before Parliament, not one MP for a Scottish or Welsh constituency had better vote. This does not apply in their constituencies, so I do not want to see them force two years of extra schooling onto English children but not those in Scotland and Wales.
That they even could do it illustrates the issues with our current devolution system.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:29 PM
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November 4, 2007
Paying the price of serving
"It is a command responsibility to ensure that our officers and soldiers are made aware of the need to provide adequately for their dependants, and that they are informed of the types of cover available to them. Grateful for your help in this matter." leaked Ministry of Defence (MoD) document
So make sure your troops buy Insurance as sure as fuck they can't depend on the Government, oh, and the price of insurance has just gone up...
Posted by The Englishman at 6:11 AM
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November 2, 2007
Honour The Covenant
Scotsman.com News - UK - Injured soldier's father hits out at 'immoral' MoD offer
THE father of the youngest soldier seriously injured in Iraq yesterday said the Ministry of Defence had added "a degrading insult to injury" by offering his family £57,000 compensation.
Jamie Cooper, now 19, was warned he could face a lifetime in a wheelchair after shrapnel sliced through his stomach during a mortar attack in Basra last November.
He has since suffered further setbacks after catching a series of infections at Birmingham's Selly Oak Hospital.
The Royal British Legion is calling on Government to honour its life-long duty of care to those making a unique commitment to their country. Here's how we would like you to help.
Meet with your MP
Send a letter to your MP
Email your MP
Posted by The Englishman at 7:58 AM
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October 30, 2007
With friends like these, it could get ugly...
Giovanni di Stefano is a European lawyer based in Italy who frequently works in the United Kingdom.
Those he claims to have represented have included:
Posted by The Englishman at 7:50 AM
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Should make finding a plumber easier
Scotsman.com News - 300,000 more foreign workers than believed, as Cameron vows to limit migrants
PETER Hain apologised last night after admitting there were 300,000 extra foreign nationals working in the UK than the government previously believed.
Whoops - those pesky stats again - no wonder they want to brand everyone so they can count us better. Still I can think of one African with a criminal record who is working here who could be deported to the general benefit of the country...
Do you remember how the Govenment estimated just 13000 Poles would come to work in the UK in 2005/6? New independent research carried out for Westminster City Council shows almost a million Poles could come to London in search of work in the next 12 months....
Posted by The Englishman at 7:37 AM
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October 29, 2007
Tories get it right on English Votes
Scotsman.com News - UK - Tories 'would break up UK' by stopping Scots votes on English issues
THE Tories were accused of prompting the break up of the UK last night as it emerged David Cameron is set to commit his party to stripping Scottish MPs of the right to vote on English matters at Westminster.
He will back proposals by Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the former Scottish secretary, to create an English Grand Committee of the House of Commons to deal with issues which only affect people living south of the Border.
...David Cairns, the Scotland Office minister, said: "Once you breach the principle that all MPs should vote on matters before them in Westminster you get constitutional anarchy."
Harriet Harman, the deputy Labour leader, told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show that the suggestion could lead to a break-up of the UK. She said: "I think it's very ironic that we've got a situation where Malcolm Rifkind, who was a Scottish member of parliament until he lost his seat ... is now proposing something that would ultimately end up with Scotland being pushed out of the union."
Alex Salmond, the First Minister, described Sir Malcolm's proposal as "some sort of spatchcock solution to appeal for votes in Middle England". He said:
"I am a great believer in an English parliament, and you know a lot of folk say that England couldn't manage on its own. I decry that entirely. I've got every confidence in the people of England to be fully self-governing. I think they'll make a fantastic job of it and we'll be the best of neighbours and the best of friends."
I think the Tories have pitched this just right as a fair and measured response to the inequality the English put up with. Of course it isn't as far reaching as the English deserve, or Alex Salmond cheekily proposes; nor it is it completely ineffectual. The BBC gave Harriet Harmen's hysterical outburst full exposure last night, and I think most of Middle England listened and crystallised their thoughts that she was barking and that the situation was unfair. And the appeal to "fairness" is one of the most powerful emotive calls a politician can make.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:35 AM
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October 28, 2007
Tom, Dick or Harry?
British royal family member targeted by blackmailers
Hmm - The Alaska Report prints a photo of a young royal groping a girl to illustrate the report - what's the connection?
(And any publication that runs a Corrupt Bastards Club to expose politiicains can't be all wrong...)
Posted by The Englishman at 12:12 PM
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McJobs
Jackie Stewart runs down his ‘workshy’ fellow Scots - Times Online
SIR Jackie Stewart, the former motor-racing world champion, has accused his fellow Scots of being lazy and overdependent on public sector “jobs for life”.
“I think social services are too prolific. If you have a job in government you’re not going to be sacked. You have a job for life. You don’t have to work too hard and you don’t have to present yourself well because it is not competitive.”
The 68-year-old’s comments have reignited the debate provoked by Kelvin MacKenzie, the former editor of The Sun, who claimed Scotland was a nation of subsidy junkies.
As a panellist on the BBC’s Question Time programme earlier this month, MacKenzie, whose grandfather was born in Stirling and was allegedly a Highland Games champion, accused Scots of living off wealth created in the southeast of England.
“Scotland believes not in entrepreneurialism, like in London and the southeast. The reality is that the Scots enjoy spending it, they don’t enjoy creating it, which is the opposite of down in the south,” he said.
MacKenzie, who is being investigated by police for allegedly inciting racial hatred, said he was delighted a prominent Scot had now endorsed his comments. “The Scots may not want to take notice of someone like me but I hope they take notice of someone like Sir Jackie,” he said.
“When their own countrymen and someone who has made a success of their life starts making these statements then maybe Scots should think a bit more rather than hitting out. I am not anti-Scot but I am anti the fact we are subsidising a part of the country that should be able to look after itself.”
It should be a matter of pride for the Scotch that they stand on their own two feet, and seen to be doing so.
Posted by The Englishman at 8:57 AM
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October 25, 2007
HM The Game Girl
You take the Fiat Uno, I'll pot the Mercedes...
(The original photo it is cropped out of is from happy times back in 1947 and is below the fold)
Posted by The Englishman at 6:53 PM
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October 24, 2007
This Green and Crowded Land - It's an England only problem
Record immigration sees UK population soar - Telegraph
Statisticians said at least 70 per cent of the population rise over the next 20 years will be attributable directly to immigration.
The rest will be babies born to British mothers - many of whom are second-generation immigrants
The ONS report says:
...the UK population will increase from an
estimated 60.6 million in 2006, to 65 million in 2016, passing 70
million in 2028, to reach 71 million by 2031.
The population of England is projected to increase by 8 per cent
by 2016, that of Northern Ireland by 7 per cent and Wales by 5
per cent. The projected increase for Scotland, where fertility and
life expectancy levels are assumed to remain lower than in the
rest of the UK, is 3 per cent.
But the graph accompanying the story doesn't seem to show that,
The total rise seems to mirror the England rise with the other countries flat lining; so I dug into the figures:
Data Source - GAD - Government Actuary's Department - Demography Data - Population (Note x scale not linear )
The projected rise in the population isn't a UK problem/opportunity, it isn't a British one - it only affects England. So what is going on with the story? Why is every MSM outlet leading with it being a Brownian British story? Why does the press release seem to differ from the figures? Why is England the word that dare not speak it's name.....
Posted by The Englishman at 7:47 AM
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October 22, 2007
Free Sweeties for all north of the border
English pay price as Scots axe charges - Telegraph
The public services ''apartheid" between England and Scotland has widened again as Scottish ministers pledged to abolish all prescription charges north of the border...
The move was cited as the starkest example yet of the "unfairness" of the current funding arrangement, with English taxpayers forced to pay towards improvements to health care and education available only in Scotland.
In the immortal words of Scottie; "Captain, I cannae hold it much longer! I cannae push her any further or she'll explode!"
Posted by The Englishman at 6:47 AM
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October 21, 2007
Trafalgar Day
A small chest at The Castle has these handles, "Sacr'd to Nelson - Trafalgar" - probably just a cheap souvenir 200 years ago but rather nice now.
As John Redwood says:
Today we mourn the deaths of 1663 brave seamen and soldiers who died fighting to preserve the freedom of our country against Napoleon’s imperialism 202 years ago.
Their deeds were heroic. 27 English ships of the line (including 3 small 64 gun vessels with no ship carrying more than 100 guns) engaged with 33 French and Spanish battle ships, including the three largest ships in the world in the coalition fleet (a 130 gun ship and two 115 gun ships). After a few hours action 19 enemy ships had been captured or destroyed by the English fleet. No English ship surrendered.
All in fucking vain now thanks to the traitorous bastards in power.
Posted by The Englishman at 9:35 AM
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October 20, 2007
Result
A great result - well worthwhile to prevent the morning papers featuring the crookedteethfalsesmilingcyclopianfuckingtraitorousscotchfuckingtraitorous
sorryifIrepeatedmyselffuckingtraitorousscotchcyclopsmooningdforthecamerafucking
traitorousscotchmug alongside Jonny.
Posted by The Englishman at 11:53 PM
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Until 8:00 this will have to do
Posted by The Englishman at 8:35 AM
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One for Mr NBC - and the rest of you awaiting the Clash this evening
Posted by The Englishman at 7:46 AM
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October 16, 2007
An Email From Australia
When England beat the Aussies, the Aussies were ranked second in the world. That defeat plus the frog victory over the kiwis meant Australia and France swapped places, Australia dropping to fifth and France rising to second. So when England beat France, France was ranked second in the world.
Who is ranked second in the world now?
International Rugby Board - World Rankings
Posted by The Englishman at 7:54 AM
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October 15, 2007
Factchecking bombs under carparks
Blood, mud and aftershave | Sport | The Observer
'A bomb under the West car park at Twickenham on an international day would end fascism in England for a generation,' wrote George Orwell before the war.
10 reasons why football is better than rugby | Football - Times Online
Journalist Polly Toynbee on rugger: “A bomb under the West car park at Twickenham would set back fascism in England for a generation.” There’s only one Polly Toynbee.
Ah hem - I believe both papers to be wrong - it was that nasty piece of work Polly's Dad Theodore Philip Toynbee's only bon mot.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:01 AM
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October 14, 2007
Normans and Saxons
As Mr FM reminds us On This Day ... in 1066 it is, as John Redwood says the anniversary of less happy times - the date of the battle of Hastings..
Is it too early in the morning for a bit of Kipling, a warning our Brussels masters ought to heed?
Norman and Saxon
(A.D. 1100)Rudyard Kipling
|
“MY SON,” said the Norman Baron, “I am dying, and you will be heir “The Saxon is not like us Normans, His manners are not so polite. “You can horsewhip your Gascony archers, or torture your Picardy spears, “But first you must master their language, their dialect, proverbs and songs. “They’ll drink every hour of the daylight and poach every hour of the dark, “Appear with your wife and the children at their weddings and funerals and feasts. |
Posted by The Englishman at 8:40 AM
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In case you hadn't noticed....
New Zealand's worst fears have come true.
England, insufferable England, the team all Kiwis love to hate, booted France out of the World Cup in Paris this morning winning 14-9 and they will now defend their title in the Rugby World Cup final in a week's time.
South Africa can expect no surprises from Argentina in their rugby World Cup semifinal clash here on Monday, something that will not come as welcome news for the Springboks.
Argentina have developed a reputation as a gruelling, rugged, battling team that turns matches into a war of attrition, draining their opponents with bustling forward play and bombarding them with high kicks before hitting them with rapier-like breaks in the backs.
And if the Boks thought they would be in for anything other than that, they will be sadly disappointed at the Stade de France.
"If we have to we'll kick 140 up and unders and push the lines up. Maybe people don't like the way we play but this is the way we have to play," said lock Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe.
"We are very strong mentally, we have a good defence and we are crazy for playing rugby."
Come on you, Pumas!
Posted by The Englishman at 7:56 AM
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October 13, 2007
It was ours to lose.
BBC SPORT | Rugby Union | Rugby World Cup photos
Nuff said.
Posted by The Englishman at 10:31 PM
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October 6, 2007
12 - 10
Apologies I haven't blogged an in depth match report but I have been too buy calling random telephone numbers and giggling down the phone at them.
Posted by The Englishman at 5:36 PM
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Iraqi Interpreters to be given asylum
Victory for those who risked lives for Britain - Times Online
Iraqi interpreters and other key support staff who have risked their lives to work for Britain are to be allowed to settle in the United Kingdom, The Times has learnt.
Hundreds of interpreters and their families are to be given assistance to leave Iraq, where they live under fear of death squads because they collaborated with British forces. Those wishing to remain in Iraq or relocate to neighbouring countries will be helped to resettle.
After a two-month campaign by The Times, Gordon Brown is set to announce that interpreters who have worked for the British Government for 12 months will be given the opportunity of asylum in Britain.
Good news and without being churlish I think I'm right to point out it wasn't just The Times who campaigned, too many bloggers to mention also stirred up the indignation.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:56 AM
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October 2, 2007
Good News From Scotland
Scotsman.com News - One in seven jobs at risk as squeeze begins
ONE in seven core civil-service jobs in the Scottish Government is to be cut under plans to deal with the spending squeeze being imposed on Scotland by the UK Treasury.
An excellent start, if it ever happens.....
Posted by The Englishman at 6:49 AM
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September 28, 2007
Property Porn
English Heritage Images of England: a searchable photograpic archive of the historic buildings of England
Images of England is a ‘point in time’ photographic library of England’s listed buildings, recorded at the turn of the 21st century.
You can view over 300,000 images of England’s built heritage from lamp posts to lavatories, phone boxes to toll booths, mile stones to gravestones, as well as thousands of bridges, historic houses and churches.
Ooh look there's Aunty Mabel's House...
Posted by The Englishman at 6:02 AM
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September 26, 2007
Rockall Times
BBC ON THIS DAY | 21 | 1955: Britain claims Rockall
The UK formally claimed uninhabited Rockall, which is just 70ft (21m) high, on 18 September 1955 at 1016 GMT.
Two Royal Marines and a civilian naturalist, led by Royal Navy officer Lieutenant Commander Desmond Scott, raised a Union flag on the island and cemented a plaque into the rock.
The islet is within reach of the planned guided missile range in the Hebrides ...
Queen Elizabeth authorised the annexation on 14 September.
Her orders stated: "On arrival at Rockall you will effect a landing and hoist the Union flag on whatever spot appears most suitable or practicable and you will then take possession of the island on our behalf."
End of story so WTF is this about?
Iceland talks to resolve rival claims to Rockall - Telegraph
The long-running dispute over the ownership of Rockall, the inaccessible lump of granite rising out of the Atlantic, will come to a head when the rival nations that lay claim to its territorial boundaries meet for talks in Iceland.
For decades Britain and Ireland have been unable to agree who owns the outcrop and, more importantly, the surrounding seabed, which is rich in oil and gas.
Representatives from Britain, Ireland, Denmark (acting for the Faroe Islands) and Iceland will attempt to resolve the issue at talks in Reykjavik.
Tell the bog trotters, whalers and cod botherers where to go, and that is not Rockall.
More from the late and much missed incomparable Rockall Times
Posted by The Englishman at 6:05 AM
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September 19, 2007
The best argument ever for Scottish Independence
Scotsman.com News - Independent Scotland would have to apply to join EU
AN INDEPENDENT Scotland would be forced to apply to become a member of the European Union, a senior official said last night....
Joe Borg, the fisheries commissioner, has broken ranks to say unequivocally that in his view, an independent Scotland would remain outside the EU until it had completed the formal application process - in the same way as Eastern European states have done in recent years.
That application process would be much easier than for the new accession states because Scotland has been in the EU for 30 years, but it would probably take months, maybe even years, to complete, with all the other member states having to approve the country's membership before it could join.
In an interview with The Scotsman, Mr Borg said: "On the issue concerning Scotland's independence, that's not my competence to assess or to evaluate but if, for one moment, we were to assume that Scotland gained independence and therefore is eligible as a new member state for the European Union, I would see that, legally speaking, the continuation of the membership would remain with the rest of the UK - less Scotland. And, therefore, Scotland, as a newly independent state, would have to apply for membership."
Mr Borg's remarks run completely against assumptions the SNP has been making for years and contradict statements from both Mr Salmond and his enterprise minister, Jim Mather.
...
This year, Mr Mather said: "We are an incumbent member state - what about England having to re-apply?"
Sauce for the goose etc, if Scotland left the Union then the union is broken and England's status changes just as much (which is why we should have a say as well.) So please, let us be chucked out and have to reapply!
Posted by The Englishman at 5:50 AM
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September 16, 2007
Last Days of Summer
Isle of Wight in the distance today...
And why shouldn't I have a pair of Camo Crocs??
Posted by The Englishman at 8:27 PM
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September 11, 2007
What have the Scots ever done for us?
ALL this week, The Scotsman is profiling some of the greatest Scottish Inventors
Can't spot the genius behind the deep fried Mars Bar or the Haggis flavoured Ice Cream, but a pretty impressive bunch. It is not just the political economic enlightenment they have given sold us.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:53 AM
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September 5, 2007
How to run an NHS, by Gordon Brown; not applicable in England.
BBC NEWS | Politics | PM's bid for global health care
Gordon Brown is spearheading a campaign to build national health systems in some of the world's poorest countries that will help save millions of lives.
The UK prime minister is forming a new partnership with other developed countries to make sure international aid is spent effectively.
...
Mr Brown said: "We have the knowledge and the power to save millions of lives through our efforts ....There is no greater cause than that every man, woman and child in the world should be able to benefit from the best medicine and healthcare.
Gordy, any chance you can sort out the English NHS after, or even before, you have told the rest of the world how to run a health systems where everyone can "benefit from the best medicine and healthcare", because sure as feck we haven't got that here in your southern province.
Posted by The Englishman at 5:29 PM
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September 2, 2007
No News
politicalbetting.com ｻ Blog Archive ｻ Sunday papers round-up
There are no major stories today
h/t Adam Smith
So I thought you would appreciate some old news...
War Speech - The Churchill Centre
September 3, 1939
...
Outside, the storms of war may blow and the lands may be lashed with the fury of its gales, but in our own hearts this Sunday morning there is peace. Our hands may be active, but our consciences are at rest....
Posted by The Englishman at 8:58 AM
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September 1, 2007
Wendy Alexander asks me to shut up.
Stop whingeing about Scots cash, Labour leader tells the English - Times Online
The leader-elect of Labour in Scotland has told people in England to stop complaining that they would be better off financially without the Scots.
Wendy Alexander said that the claim could just as easily be made about other parts of the United Kingdom, resulting in London unilaterally declaring independence from other regions of England such as the North East and Merseyside.
Ms Alexander, who takes over formally as Labour leader north of the Border on September 14, said in an interview with The Times that such criticism missed the point of the 300-year-old Union between the two countries. Contrary to the widespread impression in England, Scotland did not get preferential treatment from the Treasury, she said.
Figures from the Scottish Executive show that the Government spends £1,236 more on every person in Scotland than it does in England. But Ms Alexander said: “It does not come down to numbers.....people in England should put aside these differences in policy between the two countries and look to the bigger picture of two countries “sharing risk, revenue and resources”.
I love that sort of sharing, no risk, no resources but give me the money!
Posted by The Englishman at 7:32 AM
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August 28, 2007
DA DADA DA DA DA DA-DA DA DADA DA DA DAH DADA - part three
The Dam Busters return, sharper than ever - Telegraph
Veterans of the legendary 617 "Dambusters" Squadron have welcomed plans to screen a digitally restored version of the classic film that immortalised their heroic wartime exploits.
The stirring epic The Dam Busters, starring Michael Redgrave and Richard Todd, is to be re-released in cinemas nationwide next week, for the first time since it opened in 1954....for one day only - Tuesday, Sept 4.
One day only! Pah.
(And yes the dog gets to keep his name...)
Posted by The Englishman at 6:55 AM
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August 23, 2007
Some corner of a foreign field
Record numbers emigrate from UK - Telegraph
Long-term migration from the country reached 385,000 in the year to July 2006, the highest figure since current counting methods were introduced in 1991, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said.
The number of long-term migrants who arrived in the UK in the same period slightly down on the previous year, at 574,000.....
One in four babies born in Britain last year have a foreign mother or father,
I'm starting to feel I'm stuck in a revolving door, except those leaving aren't the same sort as those arriving.
Since 1997, 1.8 million British nationals have left the country and about 900,000 have returned. At the same time, more than three million foreign nationals arrived and about half that number left.
The departure of so many Britons is exacerbating the demographic and cultural changes wrought by high levels of immigration....
There are 250,000 second homes owned by British nationals in France alone, though Australia and Spain are the two favourite destinations for the British diaspora.
Surveys indicate that another one million are set to pack their bags for good over the next five years and a further 500,000 live abroad for part of the year.
Also, far from being pensioners looking for retirement in the sun, many leaving today were young and highly skilled. The IPPR study showed that four in 10 were in managerial or professional occupations.
The Brain Drain, voting with their feet, and why wouldn't you look for the new Jerusalem abroad if you could, what is there to keep you here?
Posted by The Englishman at 6:42 AM
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August 17, 2007
Prudence Brown - Scotland needs you.
Scotsman.com News - Scottish National Party - SNP: on brink of a financial 'black hole'?
THE SNP government is facing a financial crisis, with a potential spending shortfall of up to £2 billion in its budget plans, according to one of Scotland's leading experts in public expenditure.
Professor Arthur Midwinter yesterday warned that the new Nationalist Executive had underestimated their spending commitments and overestimated the savings that they can make from making the Scottish government more efficient.
..
In his paper he predicted that Scotland's budget from Westminster would rise by only around 2 per cent a year over the next three years, compared to 5.5 per cent in real terms since devolution was established.
That means that there will be only around £500 million in new resources coming to Scotland, as opposed to the £1,250 million of recent years, said Midwinter, who is based at the Institute of Public Sector Accounting Research at the University of Edinburgh.
The SNP had said that it would cancel the proposed Edinburgh tram and airport rail link saving £1.1 billion, and make £3.2 billion in budget savings, investing the extra money Scotland gets through the Barnett formula in frontline services.
Guess who will bail them out...
Posted by The Englishman at 6:49 AM
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August 15, 2007
Mind how you go...
Independence vote for 'Scots only' - Telegraph
Speaking as he unveiled a White Paper on independence, Alex Salmond, Scotland's First Minister, said only Scots would be given a vote in a referendum on the issue.
British politicians, including Margaret Thatcher, had accepted that the question of self-determination was for the people of Scotland alone to choose, he said.
"The decision when it comes will be a decision for Scots," he added.
So they won't want to hear the views of an Englishman then, but if I can help them pack as they leave I'll be only too pleased to help.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:57 AM
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August 14, 2007
Fields of England
If PM doesn't fly Union flag, the separatists win - Telegraph
What it means to be British will swing centre stage this week, and we may, in hindsight, see this question, in one guise or another, as the big issue that comes to dominate Gordon Brown's premiership.
....
Scottish independence is now one of the big questions that the English, who make up more than four fifths of the electorate to Westminster, will have to face. They can only sensibly do so by developing, in response, a clear statement on what it means to be English as distinct from simply British.
The Brown Government therefore must engage with the Scottish question while, at the same time, ceding yet more British sovereignty to the European Union - which will most affect the English. And it is here that the interests of the English and the other nationalities of the United Kingdom divide.
Voters in the past reacted with hostility to each and every government's attempts to bind the country more closely with the EU. And every government has wrongly dismissed this reaction by dubbing it as nothing more than another outbreak of Europhobia. Hostility was not simply a negative reaction to closer union. Integration was opposed for the most fundamental of reasons: voters believed it ran counter to what they saw as their British identity, and it was this identity that they wished to protect.
....
A realignment will be much easier for voters in Wales and Scotland. Here, a significant proportion of the electorate see their main identity coming from their separate status as countries, and not from being British. Greater integration in Europe is for them the easiest way they can separate themselves from the Union. They wish to become sovereign powers in a greater Europe.
What then will there be left of the Union? For the English, the question of the great institutions that have bound the United Kingdom together, and particularly the monarchy, will be issues they will find hardest to solve......
Immigration will give a further twist to this debate on identity. It has been mainly to England that the great waves of post-war immigration have come. Until recently, British governments of both parties tried to limit the scale of immigration, accepting that there could come a point where the sheer weight of numbers threatens the identity of the host country......
There was, ominously, one major item missing from the bevy of announcements that Mr Brown made in his first weeks in office. He seems reluctant to confront this most fundamental of political questions on identity: what basic beliefs do we still hold in common and how should our primary loyalty to the country in which we live be expressed in tangible terms?....
Mr Brown thinks a bit of flag waving will help but he has no feeling for loyalty to a country, he is a professional politician who sees countries as power bases. And whether it is Scotland, Britain or the EU all he sees is more power. It is up to the English voters to tell him what needs to be done. Then maybe, just maybe, he may slow down the sell out to the EU that the Scots are happy to see, thinking that sucking up to a bigger gang will save them from their neighbourhood bully.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:42 AM
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July 21, 2007
St George's Cross - "offensive and racist".
Binman's St George bandana 'is racist' - Telegraph
A black dustman has been banned from wearing a St George's Cross bandana because council officials say it could be regarded as racist.
Matthew Carter, 35, who was born in Barbados, used the headgear to keep his dreadlocks out of the way while he was on his rounds in Burnley, Lancs. He had done so for seven months before his photograph appeared in a local newspaper. A number of local people complained, and his superiors called him.
"I received a verbal warning," Mr Carter said yesterday. "They told me the St George's Cross was not allowed to be seen on any clothing we wear because it could be considered offensive and racist."
Ian McInery, the operational services manager for Pendle council, defended the decision to discipline Mr Carter. He said: "We have made it clear to staff that they are not allowed to put stickers or flags on bin wagons or wear clothing which shows support for a particular team, group or country.
"We can't make one rule for one person and one for another. It's just a common-sense approach that we are sticking to."...
Ah, "Common Sense" - that explains it, obviously something I don't understand.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:19 AM
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July 18, 2007
Yew won't find it
Yewmongous...the giant hedge that yields its own £600 fund | the Daily Mail
Britain's oldest and biggest yew hedge, which is 400ft long, 30ft tall and 30ft wide....The hedge's location is a closely-guarded secret but it is near Milton Abbas in Dorset.
Closely Guarded eh? Not to Mr Google, five minutes and here is the same hedge in 1955.
Not so much a secret as unfindable, according to Dorset Life:
Melcombe Bingham is part of the confusion caused by place names in this area. A mile away is Bingham’s Melcombe; at one time they were one place and Bingham’s Melcombe was just the name of the manor house next to the church. Melcombe Bingham is also known as Melcombe Horsey or Lower Ansty, since it runs into the village of Ansty to the north. Properly speaking, Melcombe Horsey is the name of the deserted village to the west of the present settlement.
And who says we makes it confusing for Townies to find their way about....
Posted by The Englishman at 11:03 PM
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July 15, 2007
My Sort of Olympics
The rise and rise of the Chap Olympics | Uk News | News | Telegraph
Here, at last, were 100 competitors and 800 spectators brave enough to confront the truth "that a society without courteous behaviour and proper headwear is on the brink of moral and sartorial collapse".
And not a sniff of taxpayer's money being frittered away....
Posted by The Englishman at 8:02 AM
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July 12, 2007
Good News - Regional Assemblies to be scrapped
The much-criticised, unaccountable South West Regional Assembly is to be scrapped and its powers handed back to elected councils, the WMN has learnt.Gordon Brown plans to demolish one of the few legacies of ex-deputy PM John Prescott by wielding the axe on the £2 million "talking shop".
Well that is one part of the EU inspired breakup of England that that has failed. And another vistory we can chalk up to Neil Herron who organised the defeat of the North East referendum which put the nail into prescott's plans. And I suppose we will find out who pays for it now..
Christopher Booker's notebook | Uk News | News | Telegraph
...the SWRA, took on 50 employees, including a liability to fund their pensions. If regional assemblies are to be abolished, as the Tories half-promise to do, who will pick up that bill? The SWRA has no assets. Technically, therefore, it is what accountants call an "insolvent body",....
Posted by The Englishman at 1:34 PM
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Tories notice West Lothian, at last.
Scotsman.com News - Politics - Conservatives target Prime Minister over Scottish MPs' voting rights
CONSERVATIVE MPs yesterday lined up to taunt Gordon Brown over the West Lothian Question and disparities in public services between Scotland and England.
Yesterday, four of the 12 backbench questions during Prime Minister's Questions related to Anglo-Scottish issues, suggesting a concerted Tory attempt to use the issue against Mr Brown.
Fuelling those suspicions, David Cameron, the Conservative leader, pressed Mr Brown on the West Lothian Question in a subsequent Commons debate.
...
Conservative MPs believe Mr Brown is vulnerable to attack on the West Lothian Question, which asks why Scottish MPs should be able to vote on matters affecting England when English MPs are denied the same rights over Scottish laws.
Mr Cameron, the MP for Whitney in Oxfordshire, asked Mr Brown, the MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath: "Where is the fairness in allowing Scottish MPs the right to vote on hospitals, schools and housing in my constituency, while no MP is allowed to vote on hospitals, schools and health in his constituency?"
Mr Brown said he rejected the Tory policy of "English votes for English laws"
Who says MPs are opportunistic chancers rather than principled legislators. This running sore of a democratic deficit for the English has been obvious for years and ignored by the Tories, but now as sinners who repent they have suddenly noticed it and selflessly bring it to the fore. Better late than never I suppose.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:35 AM
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July 10, 2007
Scotch Self Loathing
Scotsman.com News - The PM, his press secretary and the 'whingeing jocks'
TONY Blair's difficult relationship with the country of his birth has been laid bare in the diaries of his former spin doctor, Alastair Campbell, in extracts which dismiss the country's journalists as "whingeing Jocks".
.. Campbell moans in an entry for 1995 that he and Mr Blair (born in Edinburgh and educated at Fettes College) were portrayed as "ultra-English", when in fact "we are Scottish in so many ways".
"He was born there and his dad is a Scot," he writes. "My blood is 100 per cent Scots, I play the bagpipes and followed the football team to World Cups."
He then recounts a conversation between Mr Brown and Mr Blair, when the prime minister is sarcastic about Scots' high expectations. "TB said to him he'd had a day full of whingeing Jock journos saying they wanted devolution and they wanted no tax and they wanted Scotland to get more money and they wanted to win the World Cup and why was I stopping them?"
Posted by The Englishman at 6:28 AM
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July 1, 2007
Will Gordon Sacrifice Scotland to Win English Votes?
Scotsman.com News - Scotland - Treasury to scrap £20bn 'subsidy' from Westminster
GORDON Brown is set to tear up the funding agreement that guarantees Scotland more than £20bn in "subsidy" from Westminster every year, Treasury sources signalled last night.
The new Prime Minister has sounded the death knell for the controversial "Barnett formula" in an attempt to impose a "fairer" system of distributing billions in central government support to the nations and regions of the UK....
The funding formula, drawn up by former Labour Chief Secretary to the Treasury Joel Barnett in 1978, was designed to settle regional funding disputes in the final years of the Callaghan government. But it has lasted for almost 30 years and still guarantees every Scot some £1,500 more in public spending than counterparts south of the Border every year.
The formula's creator, now a Labour peer, is leading the campaign for a rethink amid growing dissent against preferential conditions enjoyed by Scots in areas including university funding and prescription charges.
But the Treasury has consistently resisted demands for the explosive move. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair last month said the distorted handouts were a small price to pay "to keep the UK together", and Brown has so far maintained the united front against the "English backlash".
But now Treasury officials have admitted that a shake-up is on the cards - and Scotland is unlikely to emerge from a review with its privileged position intact.
....
Lord Barnett is pressing for a parliamentary commission to review the entire system of distributing public funds around the UK.
"The figures are grossly unfair and clearly in need of a change, to ensure that we have a system based on genuine need," he said. "I can see why the Prime Minister might not want to abandon the formula entirely, but there is room for amendments that would make the system fairer."
However, although Barnett's formula was expected to last for only a year, successive Labour and Tory governments have maintained it - partly for fear of provoking a damaging political reaction from Scotland. ...
Posted by The Englishman at 7:29 PM
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June 21, 2007
Scottish Beggars Belief
Taxpayers foot bill for Scots' class size cuts | Uk News | News | Telegraph
Infants in Scotland could be taught in classes as low as 18 while thousands of young children south of the border remain in groups of 30.
In an announcement that triggered fresh accusations of an educational "apartheid" between the two countries, the Scottish Parliament yesterday paved the way for classes to be cut to a record low in the first three years of primary school. ....
Parents last night said that English schoolchildren were being condemned to an inferior education.
The comments reflect mounting anger south of the border over an emerging public services "postcode lottery" as taxpayers across Britain are forced to pay for improvements to health care and education only available in Scotland.
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Last week it was revealed that university tuition fees would be abolished in Scotland. Graduates in England face debts of up to £30,000 to pay for courses.
Edinburgh will also scrap prescription charges for the chronically ill as part of a £9 million-a-year scheme to help patients with asthma, cancer and hepatitis C.
In a further twist, it emerged yesterday that teenage girls in Scotland could be routinely vaccinated against cervical cancer from as early as autumn next year, after a decision by the Joint Committee of Vaccination and Immunisation. In England, the same move has been dogged by delays.
The Scottish National Party has been accused of attempting to antagonise Westminster with a flurry of headline-grabbing policy announcements designed to heighten tension between the two countries.
Last night, Gordon Brown sought to appease parents south of the border by unveiling policy reforms focusing on schools and universities, including extra help for the brightest children.
But Blair Gibbs, campaign director of the Taxpayers' Alliance said: "Sooner or later the Government is going to have to explain why it is OK for SNP ministers in Holyrood to make pledges on public spending with money raised from English taxpayers.
"Voters north of the border are within their rights to want more local control but fairness means not asking someone else to pay for it. English taxpayers once again see the SNP avoiding the logic of their own independence objective. You can't go your own way if you don't pay your own way."
The SNP are winding us up then? Consider me wound.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:08 AM
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June 19, 2007
Keep Paying the Danegeld
Scotsman.com News - Scotland - Barnett formula small price to pay to save Union - Blair
THE level of spending in Scotland is a small price to pay to prevent the break-up of the Union, Tony Blair told critics of the Barnett formula yesterday.
Mr Blair also played down Labour's defeat at Holyrood and suggested he had left the Union stronger than it was before 1997, as support for "separation" had fallen. It was understandable if voters wanted different governments from time to time, he said.
He faced a grilling over whether it was sustainable to have "two classes of citizens" where Scots MPs could decide on the affairs of England through the Westminster parliament, but English MPs could not vote on devolved matters at Holyrood.
Some may compare this with the English paying Danegeld, or even "Scot and Lot". Some Scots believe that the money is worth taking, but it is paid to them at a price, as long as they continue to sponge off their neighbour they will never walk tall and free as a successful nation.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:28 AM
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June 17, 2007
Tories want Referendum
Scotsman.com News - Tories back vote on independence
The party's vice-chairman has publicly backed a referendum as soon as possible to "clear the air" over Scotland's constitutional future.
Several Tory MSPs are backing the move, claiming the poll - which is likely to reject independence three to one - would "shoot the Nationalists' fox".
The Tory calls for a referendum were led by the party's vice-chairman, Richard Cook. He told Scotland on Sunday: "I'm personally in support of a referendum bill at the earliest possible opportunity, to remove the uncertainty already being created to business.
There is increasing concern among Tories on both sides of the Border that a Nationalist government in Edinburgh, combined with a surge of English resentment south of the Border, is pulling the Union apart.
The Tories actually using their heads for once, they think they can be Scottish, by backing the referendum, Unionist, by campaigning for a No vote, democratic by trusting the people, and on the winning side for once. Makes the Lib Dems look even more stupid.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:44 AM
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June 16, 2007
Sons of Ulster
Too many hours at a wake yesterday of an young man from Ulster - what good people they are, we don't deserve their loyalty and friendship by the way we have let them down.
Posted by The Englishman at 8:09 AM
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June 12, 2007
Blind to the West Lothian Question
Eye drug only on NHS in Scotland | Uk News | News | Telegraph
A drug that improves the eyesight of almost a third of people suffering from the biggest cause of blindness in Britain will be available on the NHS in Scotland from today, but not in England.
While Scottish patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) will receive free Lucentis injections, thousands living south of the border could go blind if they cannot find up to £28,000 to obtain the treatment privately....
The Scottish Medicines Consortium yesterday recommended that Scottish patients should receive the drug on the NHS. Last August they also approved Macugen, another treatment for wet AMD.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) is due to rule on whether both Lucentis and Macugen should be made available in England and Wales in September.
Steve Winyard, of the Royal National Institute for the Blind, said: "The SMC's decision is fantastic news for patients in Scotland.
"We have a real chance to turn wet AMD, which devastates so many lives, into a largely treatable condition - but only if Nice follows the examples of the SMC and approves these sight-saving treatments."
The inequalities of treatment across the border are starting to be recognised, so much for Gordo's all coming together in cuddly Britishness.
Posted by The Englishman at 5:35 AM
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May 27, 2007
The English Food Movement
32 Great Queen Street-Life & Style-Food & Drink-A A Gill-TimesOnline
This isn’t just a fad or an east-London oddity, but a real movement of real English food. The simplicity of the decor, the menu and the message is indicative of the sense of purpose and the heritage of this food. It takes its style not from country hotels, old gentlemen’s clubs or grand plutocrats’ dining rooms, but from pubs and caffs of the sort that is disappearing, and the rural, bottom-up element comes from the organic and green movements, the hundreds of slightly loopy hippies in Peruvian hats and cut-down wellies making ewe’s cheese from sheep with names, breeding malevolent chickens, picking mushrooms under a full moon and driving chip-fat-burning 2CVs to farmers’ markets.Now, I have issues with all of those things, but together they have produced the muddy ingredients and the imperative for a coherent national grub. And what I particularly like about it is that it reflects a lot of particularly English qualities that have got lost or dumped or sneered at in much of contemporary culture. Taciturn directness, thoughtfulness, a pleasure in craft, a mistrust of art, a joy in small things and details, a belief in the quality of sturdy things, openness, honesty and blushing. This is Leveller food, nonconformist, with a touch of piety and a subtle, ironic humour.
Posted by The Englishman at 9:47 AM
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May 15, 2007
German Humor Hurts
Britain's "thick wall of prejudices against Germany" is only natural for a country that considers Victoria Beckham to be classy, a German magazine has said.
Ouch, now that is a cutting!
Posted by The Englishman at 6:21 AM
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May 10, 2007
The West Lothian Cancer Question
Cancer survival rates worst in western Europe | Uk News | News | Telegraph
British cancer patients are substantially more likely to die of the disease than those in other western European countries because of poor access to the latest drugs, according to an authoritative report to be published today....
I haven't seen the report but I bet it isn't "Britain" but either England or "England and Wales" because Scotland has its own rules on what drugs to prescribe and they are keener on spending the taxpayers money on wonder drugs. But then why should I expect the Telegraph to grasp this point...
Posted by The Englishman at 6:10 AM
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May 3, 2007
Can the SNP deliver for an Englishman?
Betfair.com has at 6:39 am SNP at 1.22 to win the most seats at the Scottish election (Labour is at 3) - looks like the market is going with the Telegraph poll rather than The Scotsman's neck-and-neck one. I think I will have a bit of that. Just enough to buy something to celebrate Tony getting a final kicking, if he does.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:47 AM
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May 2, 2007
No English Welcome
English Democrats Party:: News blog
THE ROYAL ARMOURIES (LEEDS) PAY £5,200 COMPENSATION FOR ANTI-ENGLISH RACISM
The English Democrats have won a notable victory in the battle against political correctness by suing the Royal Armouries in Leeds for anti-English discrimination in breach of the Race Relations Act. In an out of court settlement the Royal Armouries have paid the English Democrats £5,200 compensation.
- Any chance the compensation could be taken in kind?, a few Brown Besses, Pikes, etc. all could come in handy
Posted by The Englishman at 6:39 AM
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May 1, 2007
Happy Birthday Great Britain - 300 years old today
Acts of Union 1707 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Acts of Union were a pair of Acts of Parliament passed in 1706 and 1707 (taking effect on 1 May 1707) by, respectively, the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. The Acts were the implementation of the Treaty of Union negotiated between the two states.
The Acts created a new state, the Kingdom of Great Britain, by merging the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland. The two countries had shared a monarch since the Union of the Crowns in 1603, but had retained sovereign parliaments.
The Acts of Union dissolved both parliaments and replaced them with a new Parliament of Great Britain, based at Westminster, the former home of the English Parliament. This is referred to as the Union of the Parliaments.
Other happy unions would be hanging out the bunting today and wishing for many more anniversaries to come, though David Aaronovitch does his bit to preserve the Union by declaring "I don’t want to be English"...
"The Union has allowed a generation of talented Scottish politicians to strut their stuff on the British stage: Brown, Cook, Rifkind, Kennedy, Campbell" - and that is meant to be a recommendation!
"This is an argument about how the rest of the UK will miss out if the Union ends. You won’t get, for example, an Andrew Marr becoming political editor of an English and Welsh BBC." I think I could survive the loss.
Some people are unworried by this loss. Exponents of the new boneheaded super-localism, for example, take it as read that the smallest possible unit is superior to anything larger. Supporters of the English parliament – an idea that derives from an infantile proposition about fairness, rather than need – will more or less get their way.
Ah fairness, so unnecessary when the needs of the Labour Party the Union are paramount.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:34 AM
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April 23, 2007
Happy St George's Day
Saint George - The Patron Saint of: Amersfoort, Netherlands; Aragon; agricultural workers; archers; armourers; Beirut, Lebanon; Scouts; butchers; Cappadocia; Catalonia; cavalry; chivalry; Constantinople; Corinthians (Brazilian soccer team);Crusaders; England (by Pope Benedict XIV); equestrians; Ethiopia; farmers; Ferrara, Italy; field workers; Genoa; Georgia; Gozo; Bulgaria; Greece; Haldern, Germany; Heide; herpes; horsemen; horses; husbandmen; knights; lepers; leprosy; Lithuania; Lod; Malta; Modica, Sicily; Moscow; Order of the Garter; Palestine; Palestinian Christians; plague; Portugal; Ptuj, Slovenia; riders; saddle makers; sheep; shepherds; skin diseases; soldiers; syphilis; Teutonic Knights; Venice
I think I qualify under a couple of those categories, I hope you do as well so you can join me in raising a toast to him.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:04 AM
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April 21, 2007
A Modern St George
St. George & the Dragon Ale Brewed in Devizes for Manns. Draught only at 4.5% abv, ideal provenance for St. George's Day, 23rd April, and is available from 20th March throughout April.
No more - never again!
But still there is hope - I was sat at the Gentleman's St George's Day lunch next to a young chap recovering from a broken neck - bad tackle in a rugby match, only noticed it the next day when he took a tumble out fox hunting! Luckily he should be back on active service in the next few weeks. The subject of Kennet's Bin Bugs came up and he revealed the proper response to the snooping bureaucracy, his bin bug was chucked out the back of his plane somewhere between Kabul and Kandahar. The bin police are welcome to go to look for it.
Posted by The Englishman at 9:07 AM
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April 20, 2007
The Rest is Silence
"I am just going outside and may be some time."
Off to a gentleman's St George's Day Lunch at the Pub...
In the meantime I will leave you with this to show my contempt of the EU's ban on free speech and to demonstrate how to "grossly trivialising crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes as defined in Articles 6, 7 and 8 of the Statute of the International Criminal Court" - see if you can spot my next door neighbour - having picked up some items from one of his wardrobe clearances I am wearing his old trousers today...
Hat tip http://blognorregis.blogspot.com/
Posted by The Englishman at 12:08 PM
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April 19, 2007
Yo George!
‘Rebranding’ for St George-Comment-Faith-TimesOnline
...It is time for the patron saint of England to be “rebranded” as a persecuted representative of Britain’s ethnic minorities, a black dissenter who rebelled against the abuse of power.Ekklesia, the influential theological think-tank, today calls for St George, who appeared to the Crusader army at Antioch in the 11th century and was adopted as the patron saint of soldiers, to be given a makeover. Out must go the dragon, the crusades and the associations with patriotism and Empire. Instead St George’s Day should become a “day of dissent” when England celebrates its noble, alternative tradition of rebellion against the abuse of power,...
I'm not sure why we can't quite rightly celebrate our rebellious streak alongside patriotism, I certainly intend to tomorrow at a Gentleman's Lunch...
Posted by The Englishman at 6:18 AM
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April 16, 2007
Beyond the pale
Divided by family misfortunes | Uk News | News | Telegraph
There were even worse social sins, such as using the word "toilet" not "lavatory", saying "pleased to meet you" rather than "how do you do?", and "pardon" rather than "what?".
Fair enough then - the use of the word "toilet" is inexcusable, as bad as "serviette" - even worse is the phrase - "go toilet" as in "do you want to go toilet" as teachers are wont to say - is it a noun or a verb they are trying to use? I have a strong inclination to push their prissy little heads down the bog everytime I hear it.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:21 AM
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April 10, 2007
Vote SNP
Scotsman.com News - Politics - English 'free of Scots MPs with independence'
AN INDEPENDENT Scotland would free the people of England from being "bossed around" by Scottish MPs, Alex Salmond, the SNP leader, said yesterday.
Using an interview on the BBC's Today show to take the independence argument to a UK audience, Mr Salmond dismissed as "ridiculous" fears over separate currency, passports and border controls.
He said: "I think a lot of people in England can see the advantages of being able to decide on things like foundation hospitals or top-up fees without being bossed around by Scottish Labour MPs, who seem intent on forcing unwanted policies down the throats of the people of England."
Haven't I always said what a good man he is speaking sense again.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:51 AM
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April 2, 2007
25 years ago today
The Falklands 25th Anniversary
On the 2nd April 1982 Argentina invaded Port Stanley, the capital of the Falkland Island Dependancies. With only 80 marines for defence, the Islands and South Georgia were quickly overrun. A British task force was rapidly gathered to retake the Islands, with its' land element centered on 3 Commando Brigade RM.
O tempora, o mores for those glorious days.
Posted by The Englishman at 3:48 PM
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March 23, 2007
An English Funeral
The address delivered by David Godfrey at the funeral in Cullompton, Devon, of his grandson, Daniel Coffey, killed in action in Iraq.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:28 AM
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March 16, 2007
On the HP
BBC NEWS | England | West Midlands | HP closure 'is soul destroying'
The final bottle of HP sauce coming off the production line at Birmingham marks an end of more than 100 years of manufacturing at the site.
In a nostalgic gesture I bought a bottle of HP sauce yesterday, 12 pence a week for eighteen weeks, a bargain...
Posted by The Englishman at 8:14 AM
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March 14, 2007
It's all my fault
The Evil Empire - 101 Ways that England Ruined the World
The Evil Empire: 101 Ways That England Ruined the World
They invented slums. They invented child labor. They put Saddam Hussein in power. They burned Joan of Arc at the stake, and they enslaved the globe to get their tea fix. We're talking about England, of course, and the terrible evils they've set loose on the world. In The Evil Empire, American author Steven Grasse documents the 101 worst atrocities of Mother England everything from foxhunting to the invention of the concentration camp. With an irreverent mix of historical facts, smart commentary, and red-blooded American arrogance, Grasse offers a devastating critique of the country that gave us the machine gun, factory labor, and the metric system. Publishing just in time for the Queen's birthday (April 21), The Evil Empire is essential reading for true-blue Americans and others oppressed by the English throughout history.
Posted by The Englishman at 5:28 PM
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March 8, 2007
Update on Buster Martin
Kim points me to another story about Buster Martin, the 100 year old who still works everyday and provided the cow Mary Ann Sieghart with such hilarity:
Dear Mr Martin, please toe the line
Mary Ann Sieghart
A short news item made me laugh this week. Buster Martin, a 100-year-old man, has sought private treatment after being told that he would have to wait up to three months for an NHS operation on an ingrowing toenail.
I dealt with that in the linked post but whilst she was giggling at an old man's pain in that caring sophisticated way of hers he was leaving the Fox on the Hill pub in Denmark Hill at 10:30 pm when three youths pounced on him from behind.
Despite their best efforts to subdue him, the Second World War veteran launched a counterattack and sent them running empty-handed.
He said: "They obviously thought I would be an easy touch because I'm old. But they soon found out I'm still a good fighter.
"They just jumped on me and caught me unexpected. But they didn't realise how fast I would turn around on them.
"I was confused and I was lashing out at them. How the helI I found the strength I don't know. I think it came from my temper. I don't lose it often but when I do it's not a pretty sight."
Their blows sent him crashing to the floor but he managed to spring back up and defend himself:
"I hit one in the groin and I kicked another one. The foot I used had been operated on a week before for an in-growing toenail. They must have done a good job on it because it worked bloody well."
The muggers eventually gave up and ran off leaving their victim with cuts to his head and bruised ribs.
Now that is more like it...
Posted by The Englishman at 8:16 PM
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February 21, 2007
Back from the smoke.
Breakfast in Horseguards, followed by inspecting the guards..
And then to the IEA organised commemoration of the life of Ralph Harris:
Lots of famous faces;
And then out on the town with some sound minded anarchists..more when the hangover subsides...
Posted by The Englishman at 11:24 AM
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February 19, 2007
The Road Pricing West Lothian Question
In-car black box for road pricing could cost every driver £600 | Uk News | News | Telegraph
Motorists face a potential bill of more than £600 to fit a black box needed to make a full pay-as-you-drive road pricing system work, Whitehall documents have revealed.
A blueprint drawn up by the Department for Transport showed it could cost £62 billion to set up and £8.6 billion a year to run...
Wonko points out.
Douglas Alexander was elected in the constituency of Paisley & Renfrewshire South, Scotland. Transport is devolved in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland so he has no say over transport policy in his own constituency.
Because transport is devolved, road pricing only applies to England and law compelling motorists to fit their cars with a spy box to track their every move will only apply to England. Not only will road pricing not happen in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland but the people who live there won't have to pay to use English roads!
Douglas Alexander can't lose. He is the architect of the most unpopular transport policy ever to come out of the Department for Transport yet his own constituents - the people who decide whether or not he keeps his job every 5 years - are completely unaffected by it.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:04 AM
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February 3, 2007
There is a God and thy name is Jonny
BBC SPORT | Rugby Union | England 42-20 Scotland
England: (17) 42
Tries: Robinson 2, Wilkinson, Lund
Cons: Wilkinson 5
Pens: Wilkinson 2
Drop-goal: Wilkinson
Scotland: (10) 20
Tries: Taylor, Dewey
Cons: Paterson 2
Pens: Paterson 2
Jonny Wilkinson and Jason Robinson made fairytale returns...
Posted by The Englishman at 6:24 PM
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January 30, 2007
Today is the Red Letter Day of King Charles the Martyr
SKCM: S.Charles: Statements-Trial, Final Words King Charles I
S.Charles's Statements at His Trial
"Remember, I am your King, your lawful King, and what sins you bring upon your heads, and the judgement of God upon this land. Think well upon it, I say, think well upon it, before you go further from one sin to a greater ... I have a trust committed to me by God, by old and lawful descent, I will not betray it, to answer a new unlawful authority; therefore resolve me that, and you shall hear more of me.
"I do stand more for the liberty of my people, than any here that come to be my pretended judges ... I do not come here as submitting to the Court ...
"It is not a slight thing you are about. I am sworn to keep the peace, by that duty I owe to God and my country; and I will do it to the last breath of my body. And therefore ye shall do well to satisfy, first, God, and then the country, by what authority you do it. If you do it by an usurped authority, you cannot answer it; there is a God in Heaven, that will call you, and all that give you power, to account.
"If it were only my own particular case, I would have satisfied myself with the protestation I made the last time I was here, against the legality of the Court, ... it is the freedom and the liberty of the people of England; and do you pretend what you will, I stand more for their liberties. For if power without law, may make laws, may alter the fundamental laws of the Kingdom, I do not know what subject he is in England that can be sure of his life, or any thing that he calls his own.
"For the charge, I value it not a rush. It is the liberty of the people of England that I stand for. For me to acknowledge a new Court that I never heard of before, I that am your King, that should be an example to all the people of England, for to uphold justice, to maintain the old laws, indeed I do not know how to do it."
Ah, standing up for the old laws, for the rule of English law over a "new court" that can overturn our fundamental liberties, would that such a sort ruled us now.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:50 AM
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January 25, 2007
To the Youths of England - You Will Be British!
BBC NEWS | Education | Schools 'must teach Britishness'
Schools in England should teach "core British values" alongside cultural diversity, a report will say.
Note it is only schools in England, and they mustn't teach "Englishness" but "Britishness". So that is Cecil Rhodes out the window then..
"Remember that you are an Englishman, and have consequently won first prize in the lottery of life."
Posted by The Englishman at 6:36 AM
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January 18, 2007
An English Parliament - No. 10 replies
You recently signed a petition asking the Prime Minister to
"Grant The English People A Referendum On Whether They Wish To Have An English Parliament."
The Prime Minister's Office has responded to that petition and
you can view it here: Eng-Parliament - epetition reply
Posted by The Englishman at 1:26 PM
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January 17, 2007
Having a Pop
The Bitch Girls :: Right to Bear Arms
The American vs the British Way... Hmmmm.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:50 AM
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January 4, 2007
Scots plea to retain the apron strings
Telegraph | News | SAS clan calls for new fight to save the Union
A new political party is being set up by a member of one of Scotland's most historic families to try to halt the growing bandwagon towards a referendum on the break-up of the United Kingdom.
The reason - the "failures" of devolution.
"Two-thirds of 14-year-olds fail national reading standards and half fail writing standards," it says. "One in four Scots working for the public sector. A crime committed every 78 seconds. The highest infant mortality in the western world. A £20 billion subsidy from England to keep us afloat. We anticipated excellence. We have been offered only ineptitude."
And what is in it for the English?
Posted by The Englishman at 6:56 AM
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December 31, 2006
Out with the old.
Britons happier, but not with Britain - Sunday Times - Times Online
BRITONS are upbeat about their prospects in life but fear the country as a whole is on a downward spiral, according to a YouGov poll published by The Sunday Times today. ...
Asked how they had fared in 2006, 40% of people said they had had a good year, 24% said it had been bad, while the remainder said it was neither good nor bad.
The findings, however, were starkly different when people were questioned about how the past 12 months had been for Britain in general. Only 7% said it had been good, while 55% thought it had been bad.
A similar contrast was highlighted when people were asked about their own prospects for 2007 compared with their level of optimism about the nation as a whole for the coming year.
Just over one in 10 people (11%) believe that Britain has become a better place to live over the past five years, compared with 62% who said it had got worse.
Put me in the majority - 2006 not bad with family and friends but crap for the country - good riddance to it.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:54 AM
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December 26, 2006
Tory Top Twelve
The Tories have named their heroes who should be worshipped at school and why:
Saint Columba, 521-597 (Christianity in Britain)
A Paddy who tried to civilise the Scots - an ongoing process
Alfred the Great, 849-899 (the Kingdom of England)
Local boy made good - sold out to the Europeans
Henry II, 1133-1189 (Common law)
A Good King - c. 1066 and all that
Simon de Montfort, 1208-1265 (Parliament)
Rebel
James IV of Scotland, 1443-1513 (the Kingdom of Scotland)
After agreeing a treaty of "perpetual peace" with England in 1502 he declared war on England. He led an army southward, only to be killed at the Battle of Flodden Field in Sept 1513. In other words a treaty breaking anti-English Sweaty, but he qualifies as being good because he is dead.
Thomas Gresham, 1519 -1579 (the stock market)
Inventor of red braces and Christmas bonuses for Dave and Ollie's chums.
Oliver Cromwell, 1599 -1658 (the British Army)
Regicide of St. Charles the Martyr
Isaac Newton, 1643-1727 (the Royal Society)
Very clever nutter. - But he came from Grantham so worthy of respect.
Robert Clive, 1725-1774 (the British Empire)
Outsourcing business guru.
Sir Robert Peel, 1778-1850 (the police)
The only Tory on the list - his principles of policing now sadly only of historic interest.
Millicent Fawcett, 1847-1929 (universal suffrage)
Token totty.
Nye Bevan, 1897-1960 (the National Health Service)
Slightly to the right of the nuTory Party.
A suitable quiz for this afternoon - who would you choose as the top twelve Britons that the kids should be taught about - or have the Tories got it right?
Posted by The Englishman at 6:25 AM
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December 20, 2006
Fancy Dress Foils Customs
A man who was being hunted for the murder of a policewoman is understood to have escaped from Britain by disguising himself as a veiled Muslim woman....At the time, Jama was Britain’s most wanted man, while Heathrow was on a heightened state of alert after the 7/7 terrorist atrocities in London five months previously...
David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, called for an urgent inquiry into the security breach. “The idea that in any circumstances you could be let through passport control wearing a veil is barely credible,” he said. “Doing so when an all-persons bulletin for murder has been issued demonstrates that our borders are not just porous — they are non-existent.”...(Times)
In the privacy of your own home, or on the streets providing you don't frighten the horses, you should be able to wear what you like. Church of England clergy wear lovely frocks and flowing robes, both on and off duty, so religious cross dressing has a long history on these isles, but I would expect even the Arch Bish himself to be asked to knock off the bishop's hat to go through customs....
Posted by The Englishman at 6:30 AM
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December 14, 2006
The Arsenal Flags
Arsenal to ban national flags?
This is bizarre. Arsenal apparently had problems with a lone Turkish Cypriot flying a flag.
The ban would also include the Union jack and Cross of St George. Multi-national Arsenal banning the national flag of the country they are resident in?
If it goes ahead it would be a bit of an overreaction.
Arsenal's supporters have come from across the usual class divides. Additionally, Arsenal have the highest proportion (7.7%) of non-white attending supporters of any club in English football, according to a 2002 report.
I'm not one to start name calling supporters of The Arsenal, (I was always brought up to use the definitive article in the name), but you wouldn't get such PC nonsense down in East End where I'm from, we don't have problems of all the posh people buying tickets pretending to be "real supporters" bringing their fancy notions to the game, even in The New Den Millwall supporters still believe in the old values...
Posted by The Englishman at 8:55 PM
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December 12, 2006
That's the way the money goes, Pop goes the Weasel
Scots get £1,200 a head more per year
The Government spent £6,361 a head in England, compared with £8,216 in Northern Ireland, £7,597 in Scotland and £7,248 in Wales....
The figures, published yesterday in Government Expenditure and Revenue in Scotland 2004-05, provoked anger from English MPs and fuelled an anti-Scottish backlash.
David Maclean, the Conservatives’ former Chief Whip and MP for Penrith and the Border, said: “The Government has got to address this because it is feeding the destruction of the United Kingdom.
“Not only have we got an unbalanced Parliament in Westminster, with Scottish MPs having more rights than English MPs, we are having legislation foisted on England with the votes of Scottish MPs. We are getting fundamentally greater expenditure on people in Scotland, which is aggravating rural poverty in England.
“If the Government does not address this, it will find an unstoppable demand in England for separation. It is not Tory policy, it is the Government that is destroying the United Kingdom.”
John Redwood, Conservative MP for Wokingham, said: “When it comes to certain public services, people in England do think it is unfair that devolution allows Scotland to vote for things England is not allowed.”
The figures are also a blow to the Scottish National Party, which claims that an independent Scotland would be better off financially. According to the review, the Government spent £11.3 billion more on Scotland than it raised there.
Scots received more than £3,000 a head on welfare and benefits in 2004-05, 45 per cent more than the British average of £2,072.
Identifiable spending on health was £1,513 a head in Scotland, 10.5 per cent more than the British average of £1,369.
Spending on education and training was £1,160 a head in Scotland, 6 per cent more than the British average of £1,093.
In enterprise and economic development spending per head was £123, 12 per cent above the British average of £109 a head.
Posted by The Englishman at 5:51 AM
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November 29, 2006
One Law For All No More?
BBC NEWS | Magazine | The end of one law for all?
Ethnic and religious courts are gaining ground in the UK. Will this lead to different justice for different people?
Aydarus Yusuf has lived in the UK for the past 15 years, but he feels more bound by the traditional law of his country of birth - Somalia - than he does by the law of England and Wales.
"Us Somalis, wherever we are in the world, we have our own law. It's not Islamic, it's not religious - it's just a cultural thing."
The 29-year-old youth worker wants to ensure that other members of his community remain subject to the law of their ancestors too - he helps convene an unofficial Somali court, or "gar", in south-east London.
Aydarus is not alone in this desire. A number of parallel legal universes have been quietly evolving among minority communities. As well as Somali customary law, Islamic and Jewish laws are being applied and enforced in parts of the UK.
Islamic and Jewish law remains confined to civil matters. But the BBC's Law in Action programme has learned that the Somali court hears criminal cases too.....
So how did this court come about? Some academic lawyers see these alternative legal systems as an inevitable - and welcome - consequence of multiculturalism....
The (Jewish) Beth Din is the most formally entrenched of these minority courts. The UK's main Beth Din is based in Finchley, north London.
It oversees a wide range of cases including divorce settlements, contractual rows between traders and tenancy disputes.
The court cannot force anyone to come within its jurisdiction. But once someone agrees to settle a dispute in the Beth Din, he or she is bound in English law to abide by the court's decision.
This is because under English law people may devise their own way to settle a dispute before an agreed third party.
Amongst the UK's Muslims there are sharply contrasting views about Sharia or Islamic law in the UK. Sharia is the historic legal foundations of the Islamic world - like English law, it has developed over centuries but is based on simple principles.
In an ICM survey of 500 British Muslims carried out in February 2006, 40% of respondents said they would support the introduction of Sharia in predominantly Muslim areas of Britain.
The UK's most prominent Muslim organisation, the Muslim Council of Britain, opposes the idea, saying it will not support a dual legal system. ....
Posted by The Englishman at 5:51 AM
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November 26, 2006
Majority want an English Parliament
England wants its independence
The United Kingdom should be broken up and Scotland and England set free as independent nations, according to a huge number of voters on both sides of the border.
A clear majority of people in both England and Scotland are in favour of full independence for Scotland, an ICM opinion poll for The Sunday Telegraph has found. Independence is backed by 52 per cent of Scots while an astonishing 59 per cent of English voters want Scotland to go it alone.
There is also further evidence of rising English nationalism with support for the establishment of an English parliament hitting an historic high of 68 per cent amongst English voters. Almost half – 48 per cent – also want complete independence for England, divorcing itself from Wales and Northern Ireland as well. Scottish voters also back an English breakaway with 58 per cent supporting an English parliament with similar powers to the Scottish one.
The poll comes only months before the 300th anniversary of the Act of Union between England and Scotland and will worry all three main political parties.
A quiet word to the Tory Central Office - read the polls, look at how an English Parliament would be Tory and go figure; and if that doesn't convince you then note how Gordon is setting out his Britishness stall and identify here is one policy that you can put clear blue water between the parties on..
BBC NEWS | UK | Scots split would harm UK - Brown
Chancellor Gordon Brown has warned that everyone in the United Kingdom would suffer economically and culturally if Scotland voted for independence.
Mr Brown told the Scottish Labour Party conference that the economic futures of Scotland and the rest of the UK are inextricably linked.
UK links must be kept for "solidarity" in the "interdependence" age, he said.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:30 AM
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November 16, 2006
Free Born Englishman
Title: A Free Born Englishman! The Admiration of the World!!! and The Envy of Surrounding Nations
Artist: George Cruikshank
Date: 1819
Commentary: John Bull, a personification of England, in chains and gagged, stands on the Magna Charta and the Bill of Rights.
And feels appropriate today as the liberties of Free Born Englishmen are gagged and enchained..
Posted by The Englishman at 7:39 PM
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November 14, 2006
Pussy Galore
Sod the News the Telegraph leads with the "Best Bond Girls" and the "Bond Trailer"...
Posted by The Englishman at 6:22 AM
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November 11, 2006
Order of Service
Posted by The Englishman at 6:19 PM
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"THE REST IS HISTORY.. .. A long time ago - the final part
I have been posting a few extracts from books about El Alamein which I hope you have been enjoying. This final extract is from "Royal Wilts" by Lt.Col.P.W.Pitt.
Please read it and remember it as the collecting tin for the poppy is passed around....
"THE REST IS HISTORY..
That is the story of the Royal Wilts in the Battle of El Alamein. Fate had cast them for an important role on that historic occasion and it is no exaggeration to say that they played it well. It was, however, only a part. El Alamein has been referred to as the most decisive land battle of the war,' and history may well confirm that description. Many units of the British forces were engaged and their individual stories will be told elsewhere. This book is, quite naturally, most nearly concerned with what happened to 9th Armoured Brigade.
That Brigade fought a terrible battle. Scenes such as those which have been described in the Royal Wilts sector were happening throughout the advance of the three armoured regiments. It is hard to realise those scenes, and no reporter could faithfully describe them. The mind soon became accustomed to reading about heavy losses of tanks." Such headlines were taken very much for granted during the war. Even the men who were themselves in action became callous. So-and so's tank brewed up,' they would say, and leave it at that. But what did it mean, to the men inside that tank when it brewed up" ? In order to try and gain just a faint impression of what it did mean, let the reader imagine that he or she is back again, for a few minutes, amidst the scenes which have just been described.
Up and down the whole El Alamein front the battle is raging furiously. Men are being killed, maimed, burned and mentally shattered for life. In one place two officers arc earnestly discussing some important point whilst standing, for the moment, beside a tank. A shell screams past and one of them ducks. Then he looks round and finds that his companion's head has been blown clean off. His collar has fallen to the ground. That collar, with the tie still neatly tied inside it, will remain to bleach in the desert for years to come.
Everywhere the sand is littered with smashed and burning machinery. Wrecked German guns are lying in all directions. Some are the dreaded 'eighty-eights'
some even are big Russian anti-tank guns which the Boches have lugged all the way from the eastern front, so that with them they can fire upon the allies of the men who made them. Near one gun-pit, looking somehow slightly obscene with its underbelly exposed to view, lies a British tank on its side. It is hard to imagine how, even with a direct hit at twenty yards, it can thus have been bowled over. But there it is and there it will remain, a visible proof that such things can happen.
The whole of this strip of desert is a shambles. Men are being crushed between metal and sand, and others run screaming from blazing tanks, their very clothes on fire. They roll frantically in the sand as they tear the burning material from their bodies. Again, others pace pitifully up and dot in charred uniforms, their hands swelled up with burns, their faces unrecognisable, their lips grotesquely puffed up. There are also swollen travesties of men lying, in fantastic attitudes in burnt out tanks that reek of cooked flesh. Some of these will remain there for months and when, eventually, they are moved, their bodies will drop to pieces.
Some there are who, bodily unharmed, wander witless in the desert. These will live out their lives, but never again will they be as they were yesterday.
Over there a tank is lilt broadside. A solid shell pierces the armour and smashes the drivers legs. His hands fly up. There is tenor in his eyes. Not because he will never walk again. That thought has not yet occurred to him. But he knows that tanks catch fire when hit in certain places. He also knows that when this happens it is only a matter of seconds. This is the secret dread of all tank crews. In this tank, now, bits of metal, white hot from their passage through the armour plate, are flying around the tiny space behind the wounded driver. And that space is packed with shells. One is struck by a fragment. A tiny greenish flame appears. The driver instantaneously hauls himself out of the seat. He reaches the turret a moment after the rest of the crew have baled out. Gripping, pulling, levering himself up, he extricates himself, in spite of his useless legs, with the superhuman strength of a desperate man. Then he lands with a soft thud upon the sand as the tank goes up with a raucous "whoof". The heat singes his hair as he wriggles and scrambles away from it.
That is what happens when a tank "brews up."
Don't shudder, reader, and say, "How disgusting! Why draw attention to such unpleasant details?" The author has already been asked to leave them out. Some have described them as "horrific." But others, who took part in the battle, have asked that they should be left in. These latter feel that you should know the truth and so the details have remained. This is not fiction. These are only a few specific and isolated instances of the horrors that took place on that battlefield of El Alamein. The men concerned were your relatives and friends. They would normally have been living at peace in England, and each one represents a family. Furthermore such scenes occurred, to a greater or lesser degree, on every battlefield throughout the world in this last appalling war.
You should know about such things because it is you who will have to prevent their recurrence in the future. Yes, you. Not the politicians. Not the man next door. But you, You, YOU! Those men who fought have helped to wrest the torch of civilisation from the hands of the devil. They have paid with their lives, their limbs and their wits. All that they ask of you is that you should guard the flame.
If you do not guard it carefully, that flame will most surely die away. There will be more wars. Queen Victoria is credited with having said that, 'The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.' History has proved how right she was. Henceforth every man should make it a ceaseless mission to pursue that vigilance.
Posted by The Englishman at 11:11 AM
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November 10, 2006
We shall not sleep..
Telegraph | Comment | In Afghan fields, the poppies blow By W F Deedes
Why does the wild poppy mean more than any other flower? What links it so closely to remembrance, the soldier and the Royal British Legion?
As the years go by, we shall find such questions harder to answer. It's a long time since, in 1915, Dr John McCrae wrote those lines:
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place.
You have to be my age - someone born in 1913 - to have any recollection of the First World War. I just remember seeing soldiers take a breather from a long route march on the grass bank outside our house, close to the south-east coast.
advertisementI was carried on to our flat roof to see two German airplanes in the night sky, faintly lit by searchlights and on their way to London. If the wind blew from the south, we heard the faint rumble of big gun barrages in France.
When the Armistice came in 1918, my eldest sister and I were given small Union flags to wave. Two young friends joined us for tea, accompanied by their widowed mother, whose husband had died at Ypres.
It was 88 years ago. ...
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Today, the poppy is about more than remembrance. It reminds us that valour and death in battle and war wounds did not end with the two world wars.
As figures we published yesterday tell us, veterans live on and still need our help. So do a new generation of younger soldiers. The soldier is not answerable for Iraq. As the Roman centurion of old understood so well, he obeys orders. Give generously for the poppy this year.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:22 AM
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Eurofighter?
Hornby, the maker of toy trains and Scalextric cars, is to rescue Airfix from administration, adding the maker of model aircraft, tanks and ships to its stable of brands.
It is thought that Hornby, which saw off competition from rivals including Germany’s Revell to secure the brands, (The Times)
Go on - you know you want to - add the wings, prop, canopy, inhale the glue as you cement it all together. Float the transfers onto the freshly painted body and run down the garden going yewooow rat-a-tat-tat...... It wouldn't have been the same if they were made by a German company would it?
Posted by The Englishman at 6:00 AM
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November 5, 2006
Remember Remember
Have a good 5th celebrating our old traditions, ignoring Health and Safety and dealing with Guy Fawkes as he deserves.
For me it is my wedding anniversary so a quiet night in...
Posted by The Englishman at 7:36 AM
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October 24, 2006
England will be heard
24 October 2006
Sir – The current "post-devolution settlement" is iniquitous to England.
Scotland and Wales have their own Parliament and Assembly, and yet are still over-represented in the House of Commons; the West Lothian Question has yet to be answered – why should Scottish and Welsh MPs preside over English matters when MPs representing English constituencies have no reciprocal right?
And the long-discredited Barnett formula, the system by which regional funding is allocated, remains grossly unfair to the taxpayers of England.
It has been nearly 10 years since the people of Scotland and Wales were consulted in a referendum prior to devolution. No such courtesy has been extended to the people of England, and our politicians seem reluctant even to allow open debate on the subject.
Dividing England into "regions", while leaving Scotland and Wales as "nations", is rightly unpopular and undemocratic. Stopping Scottish and Welsh MPs voting on English issues will cause as many problems as it solves.
The question of the establishment of an English parliament must be considered and the option placed in front of the electorate.
At a meeting in the House of Commons today, the English Constitutional Convention will be formally established, with the aim of promoting debate and raising public awareness of England's democratic deficit. As patrons to the convention, we urge the Government, Opposition and all the people of the United Kingdom actively to participate in that debate. England will be heard. The time for silence is over.
Lord Beaumont of Whitley; Lord Stoddart of Swindon; John Horam MP; Professor Hugo De Burgh; Professor Jeremy Dibble; Prof Roger Scruton; Dr. Gerald Morgan Trinity Dublin; Jervis Kay QC; Garry Bushell Journalist; Iain Dale Conservative commentator; Neil Addison Barrister; Mike Knowles, Chairman, Campaign for an English Parliament; Robin Tilbrook, Chairman, English Democrats; Christine Constable, Chairman, English Lobby; Bishop Michael Reid; Rev Richard Martin; Richard Long, Solicitor; Andy Smith, Past President, Chartered Institute of Journalists; Simon Lee, Lecturer, Hull University; Prof Charles Greenawalt
Posted by The Englishman at 6:19 AM
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October 23, 2006
Long ago on this night....
Under such circumstances a couple of hours can seem like an eternity. The bravest of these men must have some qualms. It is bad enough for those who are more or less ignorant of what is in store for them and only know that it is going to be just one more infernal battle, But for those who know the whole story it is a severe mental strain.
Yet, on the whole, the impression of their deportment is one of unnatural calm. Most of them have climbed out of their tanks and are sitting in small groups chatting or leaning against them. Some betray their feelings by small nervous gestures— the drumming of fingers or the aimless rolling and unrolling of little bits of paper. Some chew sweets. More than one has a good swig at a flask. A few rather forced jokes are cracked and greeted with equally forced laughter. These men are human and under considerable strain. But few there are, undoubtedly, who would willingly yield their places at this moment.
But time must pass, however slowly, and as the over-anxious glance furtively at their wrist watches they see that the longer hands are catching up the shorter on their journey to the appointed hour. Then, a little after half past nine, a searchlight appears behind the British lines. Nothing very remarkable in that, and it is solely for want of anything else to do that some of the waiting men watch it as it idles across the sky. And then another beam flashes on, some distance further down the line. As the minutes tick off, these two fmgers of light wander rather aimlessly amongst the stars.
But the gunners ate watching those searchlights. Eight hundred gunners are watching them with intense interest. And each gunner is behind a loaded twenty-
five pounder with a lanyard in his hand. They see the beams coming closer together -
four minutes - . three minutes . . two minutes . . one minute !
Then the two shafts of light clash and it seems as though all hell has been let loose. As one man the gunners tug their lanyards. The bombardment roars into the night. The party is on.
From where the Royal Wilts are waiting, the effect of this bombardment is beyond description. They are almost in the centre of the arc described by the mass of hurtling shells, and the whistling of their passage overhead is mingled with the staccato bask of the guns behind them and the crump of the shells bursting on the enemy positions to their front. Apart from this, the pyrotechnic display alone is awe inspiring. This is all right,” shouts a subaltern through the din. This is very good, but personally I prefer the Turf Club every time! His sally amuses those who hear it. They store it mentally, to be added to the One of the best remarks “ series for use in reminiscences after it is all over. But that subaltern does not know, of course, that it will be a very long time before he will see the Turf Club again, or anything like it. For such establishments form no part of a Prisoners of War Camp in Germany.
For fifteen ear-splitting minutes they thunder on, those guns. Sixty thousand rounds for the twenty-five pounders on our own Divisional front alone have been dumped by the New Zealand A.S.C. and the gunners are helping themselves freely. It is a twenty-to-one concentration and twenty troops of our own artillery are battering away at each enemy troop. No wonder their retaliation against our guns is negligible. Besides, we have gained tactical surprise. The enemy must have known that we were likely to attack. He probably even guessed that General Montgomery would take advantage of the moon. But he didn’t know just where or when.
Next comes the turn of the infantry. Theirs is the unpleasant task of following up dose under the artillery barrage and putting in the main attack. This is last war technique and it was dangerous enough then, but this time they have the additional hazard of having to pick their way through enemy anti-tank minefields....
Posted by The Englishman at 8:00 PM
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October 22, 2006
England - a second class nation
Telegraph | News | The great divide
Anne Reay, 30, and her husband, Andrew Walker, 58, look upon the River Tweed, a mile from their log home in Northumberland, in much the same way as Mexicans regard the Rio Grande: it is what divides them from a more prosperous life. The only difference is that it's easier to cross, something the couple are planning to do next year.....
It is no accident that residents north of the border seem to get a better deal from their councils and the NHS. In the tax year 2005/06, according to the Government's Public Expenditure Statistical Analysis 2006, English residents benefited from public spending of £6,762 per head. Scottish residents, on the other hand, are indulged to the tune of £8,265 per head: 22 per cent more. It is a gap that has widened over the past generation....The results of extra state spending in Scotland are everywhere to be seen. ...
Yet, in spite of all the extra public expenditure, three of the main parties in Scotland, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish Nationalists are all reported to be considering campaigning in next year's Scottish Parliament elections on a ticket of cutting income tax. They are able to contemplate this thanks to a clause in devolution legislation that allows the Scottish Parliament to vary the basic rate of income tax by up to 3p in the pound. Until recently, given the Scottish Parliament's propensity for lavishing money - not least on its own building, which ended up costing 10 times its original budget - it was widely presumed that Scottish income tax could only go up. In addition, Scottish Tories have promised to halve council tax for the elderly, in contrast to the lack of tax pledges made by David Cameron south of the border.
Go read the rest - it is refreshing to see one of the invisible elephants in the room politic revealed for a moment - will others follow it up?
Posted by The Englishman at 6:56 AM
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October 19, 2006
Calling Marshal Wade!
SO PLEASED were Latvians to see the Queen on the second leg of her tour of Baltic states yesterday that they played all three verses of our national anthem. It was something the Duke of Edinburgh had not been expecting.
At a state luncheon in Riga, the capital, 100 guests stood for the anthems of the two countries. The locally recorded version of God Save the Queen was a rich choral treatment. As the melodious notes of the first verse died away, the Duke adopted the half-shut penknife position as he lowered himself back towards his chair.
Suddenly, in mid-squat, the choir boomed out the second verse. The Duke was forced into immediate reverse. Sensing danger, he remained standing as the second verse ended. Sure enough, a third verse followed, and when it finished he asked wearily in a stage whisper: “Is that all?” The Times
What a pity they didn't play all six verses - (below) - I find myself humming the final verse whenever I get sight of Gordon Brown's dour face on the television...
Lord grant that Marshal Wade
May by thy mighty aid
Victory bring.
May he sedition hush,
And like a torrent rush,
Rebellious Scots to crush.
God save the Queen!
1
God save our gracious Queen,
Long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen:
Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us:
God save the Queen.
2
O Lord, our God, arise,
Scatter her enemies,
And make them fall.
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks,
On Thee our hopes we fix,
God save us all.
3
Thy choicest gifts in store,
On her be pleased to pour;
Long may she reign:
May she defend our laws,
And ever give us cause
To sing with heart and voice
God save the Queen
4
Not in this land alone,
But be God's mercies known,
From shore to shore!
Lord make the nations see,
That men should brothers be,
And form one family,
The wide world o'er.
5
From every latent foe,
From the assassins blow,
God save the Queen!
O'er her thine arm extend,
For Britain's sake defend,
Our mother, prince, and friend,
God save the Queen!
6
Lord grant that Marshal Wade
May by thy mighty aid
Victory bring.
May he sedition hush,
And like a torrent rush,
Rebellious Scots to crush.
God save the Queen!
Posted by The Englishman at 6:31 AM
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October 16, 2006
St George's Day in Trafalgar Square
Diwali lights up Trafalgar Square - Newspaper Edition - Times Online
Trafalgar Square was ablaze with lights as it hosted its sixth Diwali, the Hindu festival celebrating the triumph of good over evil. Prayers were followed by music and dance and a spectacular display of lights, firecrackers and floating lanterns
Must look fantastic, I'm all for it - but my curmudgeonly mind wonders why St George's Day isn't also celebrated so.
The Mayor is trying a little but reading his press releases he doesn't seem to really get it , does he?
In Trafalgar Square people queued throughout the morning to have their pictures taken in front of a red or white backdrop. The resulting shots, including one featuring the Mayor and Olympic gold medallist Marlon Devonish, were added to a giant St George's flag erected in front of Nelson's Column. The aim was to underline people's support for the 2012 Olympic Games to come to London and opposition to racism in sport..
In 2006 St George's day was marked by a couple of traditional events and by "Charlie Chaplin was celebrated with a series of film showings on Leicester Square"
Posted by The Englishman at 6:34 AM
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October 12, 2006
Today I have mainly been ....
The History Matters campaign has designated Tuesday 17th October a day for the public to record history. You are invited to contribute an online “blog” diary which will be used by the British Library as a record of ordinary life in Britain in 2006. Please take part in this project to ensure that life in rural Britain is reflected in the results.
Whether you are hunting or harrowing, fishing or farm shopping, milking or just walking the dog, please write it down! The website says that “on 17th October and for a week after it will be possible to upload your online diary
Go on give them a true picture of Britain..
(Hat tip Countryside Alliance - as you may have guessed from the sort of life they are talking about, but even if you are stuck in the smoke that day it would be worth while doing.)
Posted by The Englishman at 7:51 PM
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October 10, 2006
The Mother Tongue
Telegraph | News | English is in the minority for pupils
English is a foreign language for the majority of children in more than half the primary schools in central London.
Pupils with English as a second language or barely speaking it at all outnumber indigenous speakers at 348 of the 695 primaries and at 53 of the 132 state secondary schools in the capital.
David Willetts, the shadow education secretary, warned yesterday of the "heavy burden" being put on teachers and the danger of creating ghettos..
Meanwhile in Germany - the Germans are desperately trying to defend their tongue against a modern English invasion.
While the French have been fighting a losing battle against Franglais for years, the Germans are only now beginning to take seriously the threat to their language from the rise of Denglish – the bastard child of Deutsch and English....
Such developments have promp-ted Norbert Lammert, Germany's conservative parliamentary president, to launch an initiative that aims to win constitutional protection for the German language.
"Many countries, not only France, have done this," he said. "Last May, the American Senate declared English to be the country's official language to prevent Spanish assuming this role."
And in Italy:
An Italian academic has sounded the alarm over the “infiltration” of his national language by English terms — but admits that “the battle has probably already been lost”.
Seems I will have to move to the Continent if I want to speak English then....
Posted by The Englishman at 5:56 AM
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October 5, 2006
Last feudal state?
Telegraph | News | Sark vote brings end to last feudal state in Europe
The tiny Channel Island of Sark, Europe's last feudal state, has voted to introduce a fully democratic government.
Last feudal state? No, not while England is ruled by unaccountable Cabals of Scots and Europeans.
Posted by The Englishman at 5:42 AM
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October 4, 2006
Dave on the right track
BBC NEWS | Politics | English MPs 'must have final say'
English MPs must have the final say on laws which affect England alone in this post-devolution era, according to Conservative leader David Cameron.
A good start - why is a simple democratic idea so hard? Let's see some meat on these bones of an idea.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:27 AM
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October 2, 2006
A real Conservative debate
In yesterday's Sunday Times, the Scottish conservative historian Michael Fry wrote about his conversion to the cause of Scottish independence. Mr Fry has kindly agreed to answer some questions posed by Freedom and Whisky.
Well doen to David for getting this interview - do go and read it. It just shows there are still one or two serious Conservatives out there prepared to face the hard questions and come up with sensible ideas.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:59 AM
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October 1, 2006
The unholy Trinity
Mr. Chalk our blogospheric teacher points out:
There are three areas of our society that cause great concern for many people at the moment
Education
Law and Order
Healthcare
If you are interested in these topics, then you can spend your money on a newspaper and read articles by journalists with no experience of the above professions and absolutely no guarantee that what they have vaguely researched (or overheard in the pub) bears the slightest resemblance to the truth.
Alternatively you can check out the views of those who have worked in these areas and equally importantly, you can comment on our posts and tell us if you think we are talking rubbish.
Law and Order is a thing of the past in many parts of the UK and who better than PC David Copperfield to bring us news of the latest plans to punish the law abiding citizens whilst ensuring that criminals are kept safe on the streets.
Healthcare is the third great fiasco and Dr Crippen can be relied on to keep us up to date with the latest medical madness.
I would add that the "Environment" and "Health Scares" are another area the MSM rattles on about without the benefit of knowledge. While many of my daily reads cover the madness well there doesn't seem to be a UK blogger who daily fisks the rubbish, or am I missing someone?
Posted by The Englishman at 7:46 AM
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September 24, 2006
Continuing our guide to the English Class system
The surest guide to a family's position in the Class system is to visit the bathroom.
Working class - the bath in "the Bog" is unused except to wash Tyson the dog after he has been fighting - copies of the Racing Post lying about. Stinks.
Lower Middle - the bathroom is called the "Toilet" and is Avocado green and each member of the family has a scatter of products and ointments. Towels by BHS. Smells of unwashed bodies and cheap perfume.
Middle Class - the bathroom is called the "Lavatory", is white and apart from neatly folded towels from M&S is completely bare except for three unused display bottles of French Toiletries , smells of air freshener.
Upper Middle Class - the bathroom was the spare room and is called "The Bathroom", a designer bath stands proud on the stripped pine floor. The White Company towels are hidden in a Morrocean cupboard and are unused as she showers at the Gym and he at his Mistress' flat in Pimlico on his way home from the office. Smells of beeswax and fresh flowers.
Upper Class - the bath in "the Bog" is unused except to wash Tyrone the dog after he has been fighting - copies of the Racing Post lying about. Stinks.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:54 AM
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September 13, 2006
We'll keep a welcome in the hillsides
...the English – are arrogant, unfriendly and have almost no sense of humour.
Well piss off then you unwashed oiks....(Whoops!)
So what do they think of us?
The French do not perceive they would receive a warm welcome if they visited the UK. And why should they?
the Italians rated us the second least funny people in the world from a nation that elects Zappo the Clown to office that is a compliment, so who do they find less funny? The Marx Brothers?
German respondents believed that only the Russians were less friendly than the British And whose fault is that Fritz? I bet they love you in Stalingrad. If the knuckleheads weren't so preoccupied with greasing their lardy bodies in the sun they would notice what the rest of the ex-occupied countries think of them.
Argentina, meanwhile, ranked Britain 31st in terms of friendliness. "Improving Argentines' perceptions of the welcome is a key challenge for the industry," Keep your thieving hands of our land and we might be nicer.
Italian respondents ranked the UK eighth in the category of being honestly and fairly governed - Thanks, but from the Italians, love them dearly, that is hardly a ringing endorsement, a bit like the French saying we seem to wash.
English-speaking nations such as America, Australia and New Zealand still perceive the British to be welcoming, as did the people of Malaysia. Strange isn't it the very people our leaders insist we shouldn't be close to and have shafted over the years are still our true friends, whereas the great European family is as dysfunctional as Blair family Christmas.
Still the gurus say: "Our sense of humour is very different. It's dry and quirky. That is one of the things that makes us such a unique destination – we have to get that message across."
Posted by The Englishman at 7:04 AM
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September 7, 2006
To see oursel's as others see us!
Thanks to my new friends at www.our-scotland.org forum I have been lead to this excellent analysis of the North Britons.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:43 AM
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A must see
Telegraph | News | Bletchley hums again to the Turing Bombe
The last time that the rattle of the Turing Bombe was heard, it was the greatest secret of the British Empire.
With a rumble that turned into a roar, a sound not heard at Bletchley Park for more than half a century, the machine that was at the heart of Britain's wartime code-breaking triumph began to work again.
Fantastic.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:22 AM
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August 31, 2006
DA DADA DA DA DA DA-DA DA DADA DA DA DAH DADA - part two
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Peter Jackson to film Dam Busters
The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson is to remake classic British war film The Dam Busters, he has told film industry trade paper Screen Daily.
Or maybe
Telegraph | News
(Filed: 09/12/2005)
Sir David Frost is to re-make the British classic The Dambusters, complete with the original Eric Coates music.
Or here is an even better idea, why don't they go away and make a new film and leave the classics alone - I doubt they can create the subtle build up of the story and devise the only moment in films that grown Englishmen admit to blubbing to - when the dog, whatever it is called, is killed.
Posted by The Englishman at 5:59 PM
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August 30, 2006
Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner....
This is the 50 year old biscuit tin I keep the chocolate digestives in - obviously Mother never claimed the 1/6 deposit - that is 1 shilling 6 pence - about 7 New Pence for youngsters.
Two observations:
When hefty deposits driven by the market were charged on tins, there was a sensible incentive to recycle or reuse.
How London has changed - what would a biscuit tin of common London sights look like now?
Posted by The Englishman at 6:44 AM
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August 10, 2006
Friends across the Ocean
I remember one story in particular my great-grandfather told me that demonstrates feelings for his first homeland. It goes like this:
One day a British patrol vessel in the channel during the Second World War sunk a Nazi U-boat. All the crew was lost but the captain. Being an officer and seeing that the ship was too small for a brig the man was given an armed escort and allowed to wander about the deck. The British captain warned the old tar assigned to watch the Nazi not to be provoked and treat him politely. The British captain wanted the captive treated humanly; he didn’t want to be un-British. An hour later the tar is in the captains quarters being dressed down for beating the hell out of the German. "What the hell happed? Didn’t I tell you not to let him provoke you, didn’t I say act British?" "Well sir" says the old sailor "as we walked along he starts saying the our ship was a rust bucket and any one stationed must be the bottom of the navies barrel. I let that go, seeing that you said not to get upset. Then he says all of England’s woman will welcome real men when they invade. Again I let that go too, but it did get me angry. THEN he said our king was born on the wrong side of the bed! Well it was all I could do not to knock his head off. But then sir he did something that I couldn’t forgive, captain" And what was that?"
"Sir, he spit in our ocean!"
My Great-grandfather spent nearly 90 years on earth, the first 22 in England.
But he left a little bit of his heart behind…along with mine.
I love the Brits!
Kissy kissy - we love you too!
Posted by The Englishman at 7:21 AM
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August 1, 2006
Phew what a scorcher! - Part II
The Met Office has a series from 1659 to present available from their website of monthly temperature averages:
I have copy and pasted them into anExcel spreadsheet for you to play with.
Graphically it looks like this:
(Larger below the fold):
A nice little series of warmer winters we are having, just the sort of thing that makes you want to run around with a hockeystick...
And any debates about the reliability of early recordings or of the effect of Urban Heat Islands are welcome...
Posted by The Englishman at 1:28 PM
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July 7, 2006
They don't like it up them...
Yobs given marching orders by Dad's Army - Britain - Times Online
ALL was well on a peaceful Sunday afternoon in the park, with only the sound of a brass band to interrupt the birdsong, until 30 youths arrived with crates of lager and a football.
For a while the old men snoozing in the sun tried to ignore the swearing and the shouts. But then the youths began yelling abuse at the musicians and kicking the ball into the bandstand.
Exchanging determined glances, pensioners and war veterans rose from their deckchairs and formed a thin grey line. As they advanced shoulder to shoulder, some brandishing walking sticks, the band struck up the theme from the war film The Great Escape. Within minutes the enemy had been routed. The youths, unable to withstand the withering glares of 20 old men, fled the field of battle. ..
Les Brown, a 78-year-old veteran of the battle of Grove Park, who signed up to fight Hitler at the age of 18, said: The Great Escape music came on and the next thing I knew I was marching towards them, along with lots of others.
It felt like I was back in the war again, up against a fierce foe. Ive never seen a group of young men look so scared.
Posted by The Englishman at 10:06 AM
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July 3, 2006
English Votes
Cameron supports plan to stop Scottish MPs voting - Britain - Times Online
DAVID CAMERON is to lead a campaign to bar MPs with Scottish seats from voting on English legislation in an attempt to thwart Gordon Brown's ambitions of becoming Prime Minister.
The Conservatives are preparing to back a constitutional change that would stop Mr Brown from taking part in votes on Bills relating to English schools, hospitals and a host of other policies.
....
Mr Clarke told The Observer: There is no prospect of backing down on some form of English votes for English questions.
Scottish devolution had left the system a mess and voters already recognised that it meant that democracy was not working properly, he said.
People say that you cant have a Scottish MP as the United Kingdom Prime Minister when the Government is responsible for all these English matters but not for issues, particularly of health and education, in his home constituency.
The proposal produced a stinging riposte from Mr Brown, whose allies called it a shallow attempt to personalise the Conservatives attack on the Chancellor and distract attention from the poor Tory showing in the Bromley and Chislehurst by-election
Better late than never and only a partial answer to the Scottish Raj that swaggers as rulers over us I suppose. But of course now instead of being a measure to restore some democratic accountability it is just being presented as a personal attack on the Jelly-bellied flag flapper. And it shouldn't be. It is a fundamental problem with our democracy and should be treated as such.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:14 AM
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June 20, 2006
A familiar story keeps rising in prominence
Top Story in The Telegraph today
Growing anger in England over the power that Scottish MPs wield at Westminster could destroy the 1998 devolution settlement, a powerful Commons committee said yesterday.
The report by the Labour-dominated Scottish affairs committee makes grim reading for Gordon Brown by highlighting how a majority of people in the United Kingdom now oppose a Scot becoming prime minister.
The MPs say that the West Lothian Question - the anomaly giving Scottish MPs a say over English laws but English MPs no similar rights where power has been devolved - is a time bomb that urgently needs to be defused. "It is a matter of concern to us that English discontent is becoming apparent," they said.
The MPs said they hoped the matter would be "comprehensively debated and resolved before "it could undermine the whole devolution settlement".
Worries about the constitutional imbalance have been underlined by the likelihood that Mr Brown, the MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, will succeed Tony Blair as prime minister within 18 months.
This question is growing legs and starting to run...
The newspaper article continues:
"Resentment at the powers the Scots exercise over English affairs is compounded, many MPs say, by claims that English taxpayers subsidise people in Scotland because the country is thinly populated, making services more expensive to run."
So it is the thin population that is the problem is it? - not as The Devil's Kitchen says "our feckless MSPs" or that because as Mr Eugenides points out "the Scottish Executive are interfering, nannyish bastards" or "tyrannical morons" as Freedom and Whisky says.
And those quotes are only with regard to the thrice denied story - "Scotland is set to become the first country in Europe to ban alcohol for under-21s as part of a radical shake-up of licensing laws.
The controversial crackdown would also see all members of the public limited to only four alcoholic drinks per visit to a pub or club"
Posted by The Englishman at 6:30 AM
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June 16, 2006
Marxist influences revealed today.
Queen quotes Groucho as she thanks nation for its support - Newspaper Edition - Times Online
The Queen was in playful mood yesterday as she addressed a grand lunch given by the Lord Mayor of London to celebrate her 80th birthday, and the 85th of her husband, attended by the Prime Minister, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Sir Cliff Richard among 350 distinguished guests.
Appreciative laughter filled the gold and white Egyptian Hall in the Mansion House, the Lord Mayor's official residence, when, in a reference to her own advancing years, she repeated one of the late screen comedian's aphorisms: "Anyone can get old. All you have to do is live long enough."
Which is far better than the extraordinary letter young Blair wrote - 22 pages of uninvited advice to Michael Foot like some star-struck teenager's gushings!
Marx (Karl) set Blair on road to Downing Street - Newspaper Edition - Times Online
Mr Blair wrote. "I actually did trouble to read Marx first-hand. I found it illuminating in so many ways; in particular, my perception of the relationship between people and the society in which they live was irreversibly altered."
Posted by The Englishman at 6:18 AM
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June 9, 2006
Been about a bit?
I've visited the counties in yellow. Which counties have you visited? made by marnanel map reproduced from Ordnance Survey map data by permission of the Ordnance Survey. © Crown copyright 2001. |
The yellow ones are place I can picture as having stopped or stayed in - some maybe only for a Burger King when driving, other brought back other memories. I'm surprised it is so many. Angelsey is on the list this summer, and maybe I ought to check on some of the other North Wales ones as most were visited late one night after we had been drinking in Oxford and with a bit of stimulation thought it would be a good idea to drive to North Wales to see the sunrise...
Posted by The Englishman at 6:27 AM
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June 1, 2006
Blogburst - nominate Brian Haw as an Icon of England
Please spread the word and also visit Icon Nominations - Icons of England to nominate Brian Haw.
Brian Haw's one man protest vigil in Parliament square, whether you agreed with him or not, typified the tradition of peaceful English protest and freedom of speech.
Posted by The Englishman at 5:13 PM
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Hunting nuLabour's Icon
Foxhunting and the Ban to be included - Icons of England
ICONS A Portrait of England is announcing today that it will include "Foxhunting and the Ban" in its next round of national icons to be released at the end of July. It is another step in the creation of an online collection that aims to provide a snapshot of the life of the nation in the 21st Century.
The news follows intense lobbying and voting on the ICONS site in favour of choosing Foxhunting as an icon. But there were thousands of votes against as well, reflecting the strength of feeling in the country in support of the Government's ban in 2005.
Jerry Doyle, Managing Director of ICONS said: " In England, whenever images of horses and hounds gathering on village greens come to mind, so too, inevitably do images of hunt saboteurs and scuffles with the police. Nowadays foxhunting and the ban are inextricably linked in the popular imagination. This is the way ICONS and its advisory board has decided to include "foxhunting and the ban" in its collection...
We are releasing news of our decision as soon as possible because of the level of public interest in the issue. It was important to give everyone a chance to have their say and to decide the best way to cover this issue.
Voting figures as of 28 April 2006 relating to the Foxhunting issue include: Foxhunting 24,395 For and 11,907 Against (67.20% in favour) ; the Fox 303 For and 206 Against
Voting is still open on these nominations and you can make comments as well if you wish to record your point of view.
Ah, how lovely and inclusive and also how to whip up a bit of interest in the project!
Posted by The Englishman at 5:11 PM
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May 27, 2006
Thatcher saves us from the World Cup
Among the many blessings that this country has had from Lady T's munificence and benefaction probably few realise that they include saving us from the odious spectacle of our Association Footballers poncing about having won the World Cup. Much as I enjoy seeing our flag being waved I am praying for an early knock out by Burkino Fasso so the bloody boring business will be relegated to the back pages.
- And Thatcher's role - she stopped the free school milk so that poor kids drank Kia-ora and Fanta instead, so their bones are like a cheap Llandidno plaster donkey and break at the first contact with the girly balls they use nowadays.
Her legacy lives on and still we benefit.
Posted by The Englishman at 8:23 AM
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May 26, 2006
Good News
News in Brief - Newspaper Edition - Times Online
More gun licences
The number of people in England and Wales holding firearms certificates rose by 3.5 per cent to 122,076 at the end of March, according to Home Office figures. There are 358,352 legally held weapons on the certificates, a 4.7 per cent increase on the previous year. There were 572,397 shotgun certificates.
Posted by The Englishman at 8:04 AM
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May 19, 2006
Reid's Rozzer Trouble
Telegraph | News | Police 'will lose 25,000 officers in mergers'
Police force mergers in England and Wales will cost up to 600 million to carry out and will 'destroy' Government plans to extend neighbourhood policing, says a confidential paper prepared for chief officers.
The report says that without extra funding the new 'superforces' will fail to achieve their intended purpose - to improve the protection of the public from serious crime. 'It won't even do what it says on the tin', it says.
Wonko's World: Will the Home Secretary order a single Scottish police force?
English police forces have to merged into large regional forces because they are too small to effectively fight terrorism and serious and organised crime. The proposed West Midlands regional police force will cover 5m people.
The Home Secretary's constituency in Scotland is covered by Strathclyde Police. They cover 2.2m people and are planning to split into 6 smaller forces because they can't effectively police 2.2m people.
According to the Home Office, this is too small to fight terrorism and serious and organised crime. By allowing any more than one single regional police force in Scotland covering its population of 5m, the Home Secretary is putting the UK at serious risk of terrorist infiltration from inside Scotland.
Naturally, I have written to the Home Office asking if the Home Secretary will be exercising his right to legislate on devolved matters in Scotland for the safety of the country by forcing them to merge into a single regional police force.
If I was "Dr" Reid I would just blame it on my predecessor and junk the plan - that is the normal management option, and the sensible one in this case - or because it won't affect his constituency or country maybe he doesn't care what happens in the vassal state.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:52 AM
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Yesterday's walk
If you haven't got Google Earth you are missing a great deal - they have just updated my local area to better, though not the best, photos.
Yesterday I did a circumnavigation of Tan Hill
The link takes you to a placemark of the hill - described as:
Google has captured the (joint) highest spot in Wiltshire with a sprinkling of snow - this highlights its height above the surroundings. In this ancient landscape with Avebury and Silbury Hill just to the north and Stonehenge a few miles to the south it isn't surprising that the land is full of archaeological details. With the snow and the undisturbed downland you can pick many of these out. There are round and long barrows and the famous Wansdyke and other sundry ditches still awaiting an explanation. This used to be the site of an ancient sheep fair from time immemorial to the 1930s when the introduction of lorries instead of droving made the site impractical. This is a wonderful wild and lonely place to walk.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:23 AM
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Bristol Slavery Apology
With local passions running high about the Bristol Slavery Apology question I note that sometime ago The Gray Monk alerted me to why the people of the Bristol area deserve a slavery apology -
The Bristol Channel - Shipping and Pirates
The Bristol Channel towns were once targets for pirates slavers and the dreaded corsairs from Algeria
While Bristol pirates were off plundering Spanish treasure ships, other freebooters were turning the tables by raiding the Bristol Channel.
The feared Algerian corsairs sailed up from the Barbary Coast ( North Africa ) to harass ships and even attack coastal towns. In 1630, for instance, corsairs landed near Weston-super-Mare and carried off men and women from a village.
They joined the 30,000 slaves from Britain, France, Spain and as far north as Iceland, who were used as slave labour in Algeria and Morocco. They got much better treatment, and sometimes freedom and honoured positions, if they agreed to become Muslims...
There is even a book available about it:
Amazon.co.uk: White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and North Africa's One Million European Slaves: Books
So how about an apology from the Arabs?
And of course the dreadful slave trade in Africa went two ways, with probably more slaves going east to Arabia then went west, but they didn't leave descendants who are looking for compensation...
Posted by The Englishman at 6:02 AM
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May 5, 2006
Englishness - the Stats.
From a surprising source - the new boy - David Miliband | Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
I recently read a 'devolution briefing' from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) which showed that in Scotland and Wales in 2003 at least 3 in 5 people said they saw themselves as a mixture of British and Scottish/Welsh. The equivalent figure in England was nearly three quarters (though since 1999 the number saying they are English not British has been at least 17%).
Which seems to say that with 75% vs 60% the English are more conscious of being English than either the Scots or Welsh are of being Scottish or Welsh. A politician with nous would tap into that...
Posted by The Englishman at 8:22 PM
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April 28, 2006
Icons of England - Misrepresenting again.
Telegraph | News | As English as miniskirts, Big Ben and the Notting Hill Carnival
The Icons Online project, a controversial scheme that is costing the taxpayer 1 million, yesterday added 21 "icons" to the 12 it announced to some derision in January.
Yesterday's new list was "broadly" the 21 most voted for icons suggested by the public since the website was set up in January, although a panel of advisers made some "modifications" to ensure a good geographical spread, Icons Online said yesterday.
The somewhat nebulous nature of the scheme has come in for heavy criticism, notably for being a Government attempt to define England's culture....
Jerry Doyle, managing director of Icons Online, insisted yesterday that the first three months had been a huge success. Almost 300,000 votes had been cast online, some 5,500 nominations had been received and the website was particularly popular with expatriates.
She said: "It's not a popularity contest. We are just trying to paint a portrait of England to encourage an awareness of our cultural identity and so far we feel that it is really capturing people's imagination."
You may remember back on Feb 1st the site had left its stats page open to view, so I did - my report showed that Fox hunting had about 4 times as many views ( which correlated to votes) as the next most popular icon - Morris Dancing.
But strangely it isn't now in the "most popular" list - either the Advisory Board (a bunch of urban Arts Grads - check their CVs) have deemed it unsuitable or Mugabe like voting has been going on in the last couple of months.
The new icons: Flag of St George; Hadrians Wall; Notting Hill Carnival; Brick Lane; Lindisfarne Gospels; On the Origin of Species; morris dancing; Domesday Book; HMS Victory; the miniskirt; The Hay Wain; Pride and Prejudice; Eden Project; the pub; Blackpool Tower; Globe Theatre; cricket; Sutton Hoo helmet; York Minster; Big Ben; postage stamp showing the Queens head designed by Arnold Machin, in use since 1967
The original 12: Stonehenge; Punch and Judy; SS Empire Windrush; Holbeins portrait of Henry VIII; cup of tea; FA Cup; Alices Adventures in Wonderland; Routemaster bus; King James Bible; Angel of the North; Spitfire; Jerusalem
Posted by The Englishman at 6:48 AM
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April 23, 2006
Happy St George's Day
Posted by The Englishman at 1:18 AM
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April 22, 2006
The future of England as seen in 1870
Lowesley Hall
Brother sportsmen, staunch protectionists! rejecting all that's new,
Oh! the future that's impending is a queerish one for you;
For I look'd into its pages and I read the book of fate,
And I saw Fox Hunting abolished by an order of the State.
Saw the heavens filled with guano, and the clouds at mans command
Raining down unsavoury liquids for the benefits of the land;
Saw the airy Navies earthward bear the planetary swell,
And the long projected railway made from Hanover to H--l;
Saw the landlords yield their acres, after centuries of wrongs,
To the cotton Lords, to whom, it's proved, all property belongs;
Queen, religion, State abandoned, and all flags of party furled
In the government of Cobden and the dotage of the world.
Then shall exiled common sense espouse some othe country's cause,
And the rogues shall thrive in England, bonneting the slumb'ring laws.
Written in 1870 by Sir W Bromley Davenport, M.P.
(As far as I know this is its first electronic publication!)
Not too far wrong!
In a similar vein may I point you to The Fox's Prophecy.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:56 AM
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April 21, 2006
I am just going outside and may be some time
St George's Day Gentleman's Lunch at the Pub today....
Posted by The Englishman at 11:52 AM
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Happy Birthday Your Majesty
Lord grant that Marshal Wade
May by thy mighty aid
Victory bring.
May he sedition hush,
And like a torrent rush,
Rebellious Scots to crush.
God save the Queen!
Posted by The Englishman at 7:14 AM
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April 9, 2006
May it's because I'm a Taffy that I love London so....
BBC NEWS | England | Shropshire | Women missing out on cancer drug
Breast cancer patients from Wales will be given the cancer drug Herceptin for free at the same hospital where women from Shropshire will have to pay.
The Welsh Assembly Government is funding the drug in full, unlike the Shropshire Primary Care Trust.
It means women from Shropshire would have to pay 47,000 to receive the drug at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
...
The 544-bed Royal Shrewsbury Hospital provides acute care for people in north Shropshire and mid Wales.
I don't think I need to spell it out why some of the English are getting a tad fed up with the Celtic carve up of this United Kingdom.
Posted by The Englishman at 5:52 PM
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April 7, 2006
There is hope for the country yet
Telegraph | News | Oxford president fined for sinking too many after Boat Race victory
The president of the Oxford University Boat Club admitted celebrating well but not wisely yesterday as he reflected on a night in the cells and an 80 fine following last Sunday's dramatic victory over Cambridge.
Barney Williams, an oarsman in the winning Dark Blues crew, went on a pub crawl in the city after the triumph in the 152nd University Boat Race
Good chap, not for him a quiet night at home with wife and child drinking isotonic drinks and doing a workout on the rowing machine, no a bloke should get hogwhimperingly drunk after winning the boat race; even Bertie Wooster got fined five guineas on Boat Race night for swiping a policeman's helmet, and he was only a spectator! As long as there a men like this all will be well.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:53 AM
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March 28, 2006
Untermensch
Britain, UK news from The Times and The Sunday Times - Times Online
BRITAIN'S youngest drink-driver attacked a lawyer and threw a jug of water at magistrates yesterday as she was sentenced for her second offence of driving while drunk.
Leanne Black, 14, screamed obscenities and kicked over a chair before lunging at the prosecutor and punching her in the back.
Black, wearing a shiny white tracksuit and fake gold jewellery,...The disturbance in Newbury was not limited to the court. As Black arrived she had hurled eggs at photographers as her mother stuck out her buttocks at them. As the family left, there were further scuffles.
Posted by The Englishman at 5:10 AM
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The old songs of England
England - famous for its folk music and traditional shanties, subtle but powerful tunes resonant of the common man and the glories of the countryside can welcome a new addition to the genre in time for the Association Footer matches this summer - World Cup Song 2006 - Tits Out for the Lads by Branded! This oeuvre seems to embody all the culture and subtlety that we expect from the soccer supporting classes.
Posted by The Englishman at 4:58 AM
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March 17, 2006
The West Glamorgan Question
Politics, news, comment from The Times and The Sunday Times - Times Online
THE only Welsh language school outside Wales has been saved by a deal struck during the frantic horse-trading for MPs' votes over the Education and Inspections Bill.
Ministers were so desperate not to lose the timetable for their Bill that they agreed to secure the future of the school in exchange for abstentions from two Plaid Cymru MPs.
Adam Price, the MP for Carmarthen East & Dinefwr, said: This is the only Welsh-medium school in the world outside of the territory of Wales, so symbolically it has a very special place in peoples hearts in Wales. It has been in existence for almost 46 years and has never had a penny from the maintained education sector in England.
There have been several attempts in the past to get them into the state sector because this is an anomaly. They are inspected by Ofsted, they teach the National Curriculum and they meet all the key criteria. They happen to do it through the medium of Welsh.
So we had to overcome the obstacle to Welsh language teaching and frankly we managed to do it largely because of the new political arithmetic we have in the Commons.
Remember "The White Paper set out policies for schools in England and in relation to Wales stated: 'The policy objectives set out in this White Paper are those for England. The Bill will cover England and Wales, but most of the provisions will apply only to England.'
It isn't just the Scotch that are voting on English matters.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:35 AM
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March 15, 2006
That 1m Icons of England website is still going...
ICONS Newsletter 01 2006 - Icons of England
The pro-fox-hunting lobby went to town after the Countryside Alliance signposted the fox-hunting nomination on its home page - word spread quickly and thousands of votes were received. Opponents of blood sports have expressed their concern at this support for fox-hunting - an activity now declared illegal - but many report they did not realise people can vote against nominations as well as in favour of them. The vote is changing hourly (both for and against) as more people get to hear about the controversial debate surrounding this nomination. The fox, itself, has also been nominated and is attracting votes in its own right.
.....
ICONS partners, the Foundation for Science, Technology & Civilisation has opened its 1001 Muslim Inventions touring exhibition at Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry (www.icons.org.uk/introduction/partners/1001).
A book and website is also being launched - www.1001inventions.com
Information about our Muslim heritage is featured on the ICONS website from March onwards. You can find out how the Muslim world handed down many things we take for granted nowadays like clocks, architecture and libraries.
Teachers packs and education posters are available.
So please vote against Fox Hunting and celebrate "our Muslim Heritage" and all the wonderful things Muslims have given us like the English countryside, paintings, songs, poetry, the three piece suit, the tie, pubs, three day eventing, community, fine buildings, bloodlines and the healthiest fox population in the world - no sorry, that is Fox hunting that did that, Muslims gave us something else, I must go and find out what.
Posted by The Englishman at 10:39 AM
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March 13, 2006
Guess who couldn't give a toss about English farmers
We have dedicated buying teams in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, whose task it is to seek out and develop relationships with suppliers. In the UK, Tesco stocks over 7,000 local products. All products are labelled with the country of origin and, where appropriate, with national flags.
Posted by The Englishman at 11:32 PM
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March 12, 2006
The English - a view from Scotland part 1
Self-rule for Sassenachs is a dead duck - Sunday Times - Times Online
.. opinion polls indicate that the English tolerate Scottish and Welsh devolution. But they don't want England to be "compensated" by having their country chopped up into a bunch of bureaucratic, soulless regions.
However, apart from the Campaign for an English Parliament, a pressure group which regards Scots as foreigners, there is no clamour for a devolved England. Unless the place has undergone a dramatic transformation since I was last there, the English are as bored by talk of constitutional change as they were in the run-up to devolution in Scotland and Wales.
Nor does the resurgence in English self-identification and awareness in the wake of devolution to Scotland and Wales strike me, in my Scottish fastness, as overbearing. The flag-waving of the St Georges Cross has only been slightly more vigorous. Love of England by the English has not been noticeably strengthened or weakened by devolution. In categorically ruling out an English parliament in any kind of future, Falconer has shot a paper tiger.
Blair will not ban Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland MPs from voting on matters that dont directly concern them, saying that creating two classes of MPs will get parliament into all sorts of problems. He forgets that problems exist: they need to be addressed. The simplest solution would be for Scottish MPs to withdraw during English-only debates.
Is it conceivable that Scotlands Labour group would quietly do the same, perhaps in a few months after the education bill has passed on to the statute books, and thereby resolve the West Lothian question once and for all, by convention rather than law?
Not a chance! Soon there will be a new, unmistakeably Scottish, prime ministers majority to uphold. Stand by for more blather about Britishness, not self-rule for the Sassanachs.
Aye, from across the border, love, to you and all your media lovey friends everything looks rosy. The only options for England are the regional breakup or putting up with Gordon's Gang running roughshod. Let me give you a hint, think Braveheart, but instead of the knicker-dampening brave Celts with Australian accents think those horrible white-van-driving beer-swilling football-supporting Englanders who you never met when you swanned about in Soho Square - they are coming to get you!
Posted by The Englishman at 1:39 PM
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March 11, 2006
BBC Poll
BBC NEWS | Politics | No English parliament - Falconer
(previous link deleted as no longer works)
Posted by The Englishman at 12:01 PM
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Vicki Woods on Charlie Falconers rejection of England having democracy,,
Telegraph | Opinion | England will never have a parliament
There will never be an English parliament because the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has already set up the English regional assemblies (like the Welsh Assembly, only much richer) in all the English regions of the European Union....I thought Prescott tried to get the North-East to have one and everyone in the North-East said, Oh, get away with you, we don't want one, waste of money - naff off....
Well, he set the things up anyway.
This is the future for England, folks. Forget the English parliament.
Posted by The Englishman at 8:55 AM
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March 9, 2006
I vow to thee my country
The national Census is to include a question on national identity so people can say if they consider themselves Welsh, Scottish, Irish or British.
Sign the Pledge!
Posted by The Englishman at 7:28 AM
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February 4, 2006
That's lovely
As Google's most famous Englishman
: England 47 Wales 13 - watched in the warmth of the King's Arms with pints of Wadworth's IPA to hand - what more can you dream for?
Posted by The Englishman at 6:07 PM
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February 3, 2006
English Parliament - new or used - look on ebay!
(Screenshot of automated ad running just now!)
Posted by The Englishman at 4:54 PM
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England - not to be trusted with a Parliament
Little Man in a Toque highlights a paper by Robert Hazell the head guy at the Constitution Unit which is worth reading if your blood pressure is a bit low and you need something to get you started this morning:
The English Question -- Hazell - Abstract
Devolution to Scotland and Wales throws up related questions about the government of England. Does England need to find its own separate political voice? Does England too need devolution? There is little demand for an English parliament. "English votes on English laws" commands more support but would be impossible to implement in practice. Despite the setback of the Northeast referendum defeat, the future will see further development of regionalism in England. Regional government is the only institutional solution that could help to give England a louder voice and also help to decentralize the government of England. But it is not inevitable. There is no logic in the process of devolution that requires the English to have devolution too.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:12 AM
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February 1, 2006
Icons of England - Again
How interesting! The Icons of England website has its stats publicly available - ICONS web stats.
Firstly, thank you to all the readers here who visited the icons site 207 times!
I imagine a lot of you were following my link to Fox Hunting - Icons of England in order to vote for it or not.
I note that Fox Hunting is number two in popularity, not bad. The Lake District is more popular though. Strangely the stats tell a different story. Fox Hunting was viewed 40,000 times (I think that is a fair representation of how many votes it got). The next most popular nomination page was Morris Dancing with 11,000, then the Countryside and Pubs with 7 and 5 thousand respectively, with the Austin Maxi and "Yes Minister" fighting it out for bottom place with 70 each.
But no sign of the Lake District page... they wouldn't have just slipped it in above Fox Hunting,would they? No, it must be just hiding in the stats somewhere....
Posted by The Englishman at 6:41 PM
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January 25, 2006
Pity the Yeoman Farmers of England
Telegraph | News | IT debacle 'puts farmers in danger of going bust'
An information technology fiasco in the Rural Payments Agency means that England's 120,000 farmers may get only part of their new subsidy payments next month, a minister admitted yesterday.
Farmers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have already been paid their single farm payments in part. They cannot be paid in full because this has to wait until England has worked out each of its farmers' entitlements...
Lord Bach, the farming minister, said there had been continuing problems with the IT system chosen by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to administer the new single farm payment in England.
He was responding to criticisms voiced in a Commons committee that blamed him for showing "an unacceptable degree of complacency" about the likely financial impact on farming businesses of late payment of the new European Union subsidies.
The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs select committee said it was "deeply unimpressed" by the failure of ministers and the agency to plan the introduction of the payments properly.
The payment in full was meant to be paid by the end of 2005, which would be a continuation of the previous system which gave an approximately 12 monthly payment and a planable cashflow. So at the moment you have the Farmers of England only struggling with their cash. Their last large cheque from the EU would have come before Xmas 2004 and they don't know when they will get another, or how much it will be. For small businesses that is hard.
The argument as to whether they should be subsistent on state handouts and the wisdom of the whole CAP scheme is separate, this story is about Government incompetence in implementing a scheme, its effect on small businessmen and why it is only the English who are suffering.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:42 AM
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January 20, 2006
Fettes for the Sweaties, Oil Drum Lane Comp for the English...
Scotsman.com News - 1,000 extra per pupil - so why are our schools not doing better?
MINISTERS were accused last night of failing to deliver improvements in schools despite the fact that state education spending in Scotland is now 1,000 per pupil higher than it is south of the Border.
Scottish Executive figures yesterday showed education spending was 4.2 billion in 2004-5, an increase of 300 million on the year before.
Broken down, that worked out at 3,855 per primary pupil and 5,428 for every child in secondary school. Nationwide, that equates to an average of 4,641 per pupil.
In England, local education authorities will spend 3,411 per pupil in 2005-6, rising to 3,643 the following year.
Spending on state education in Scotland is also edging closer to independent school levels, where the average non-boarding fee in 2004-5 was 5,820.
Posted by The Englishman at 10:49 AM
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January 17, 2006
No 1 Icon - Foxhunting
Fox Hunting - Icons of England
is the most popular Icon of England - you read it here first; the reasons are its influence on art, culture, clothing, countryside, wildlife management and getting up Blair's nose.
Do vote if you haven't already.
Posted by The Englishman at 8:00 AM
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January 14, 2006
Scotsman wants English to work at Britishness
The Cep reports:
Gordon Brown has had what seems like a great idea. Under his leadership students that volunteer for community work will have their tuition fees paid for by the Government. This, believes Brown, will encourage "strong modern patriotism" and "an agreed British national purpose".
The glaring problem with this is that it will not apply to Brown's constituents in Scotland and likely as not it won't apply to the Welsh either.
Why should English students have to volunteer to have what the Scots get for free? And in the name of building an agreed British national purpose!
More at The Scotsman and the BBC
Posted by The Englishman at 8:33 AM
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January 11, 2006
Votes please!
Fox Hunting - Icons of England
Now to see if they add Conkers!
Posted by The Englishman at 10:22 PM
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January 9, 2006
More on that Icons of England site
The main site is broken - or at least not launched yet - hey it was only a million pound website - but you can sneak in the back door via Icon Nominations - Icons of England - funny how they have 184 nominations before it opens!
Get in early - vote early vote often.
My nomination - I wonder if they will publish it?
Fox Hunting
Fox hunting is the traditional sport of England - as well as being the cause of the preservation of much of the green and pleasant land and its wildlife, it also gave us the riding attire which has developed into the suit and tie which has been a major English influence on the world!
Posted by The Englishman at 9:30 AM
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January 8, 2006
Icons of England - time to vote!
FIRST it was John Majors vision of a Britain of long shadows on county grounds, warm beer and invincible green suburbs. Then new Labour tried to rebrand the country as cool Britannia, promoting the merits of Blur and Britart.
Now the government is funding a list of national icons that some hope could save England from the white van man image of a St Georges flag stuck to the inside of a vehicle window.
The Icons Online project, which will choose items after votes from the public, will be launched tomorrow by David Lammy, the culture minister.
The symbols will focus on England rather than Britain because of a belief that the country has lost out in terms of identity in recent years to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
OFFICIAL LIST
Alice in Wonderland
Angel of the North
Cup of tea
SS Empire Windrush
FA Cup
Henry VIII by Hans Holbein
King James Bible
Punch and Judy
Routemaster bus
Stonehenge
We must be able to do better than those!
Posted by The Englishman at 9:26 AM
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December 19, 2005
Oxo artist
Blognor Regis
will be pleased - oxo art
Posted by The Englishman at 5:12 PM
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December 14, 2005
Raise the Flag
Neil Herron reports that thanks to his and Jim Tague's efforts "Wear Valley District Council has succumbed to people pressure and abandoned its attempt to replace the Cross of St. George with the EU Flag."
Another victory for this great man!
Posted by The Englishman at 7:14 AM
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December 13, 2005
Not Hunting this morning at The Castle
You may wish to compare this morning's photos of a Not Hunt meet with a meet of the Hunt at The Castle from when hunting was legal.
And now you have spotted the difference award yourself an extra mince pie as a prize.
Posted by The Englishman at 12:12 PM
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December 11, 2005
Boom - England Blogger first with news
The England Project: Explosion.....!
Posted by The Englishman at 9:57 AM
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November 28, 2005
Cry God for Harry, England ...
BBC NEWS | England | Norfolk | Landlord loses St George battle
A pub landlord who wants special recognition for St George's day has lost his High Court battle.
Tony Bennett, 47, who runs The Otter in Thorpe Marriott, Norfolk, wants the 23 April recognised as a national holiday.
Norwich magistrates granted him an hours' extension last April because he was holding a charity function, not because St George's day was "special".
On Monday Law Lords turned down his request for a judicial review to get the day declared as a special occasion.
Norwich magistrates agreed to the extension because the pub would raise money for charity - not because they recognised the day as special in the eyes of the law.
Mr Bennett said the extension had been given for the wrong reasons.
St George is the patron saint of England and has been recognised as such since mediaeval times
Judge Supperstone said there was "no basis" for Mr Bennett challenging the decision of the magistrates, adding the case was "hypothetical" anyway as the law had since changed with the introduction of new legislation governing 24-hour drinking.
He agreed with Norwich magistrates that 23 April was not special because there were no national celebrations and it was not a bank holiday.
Boo Hiss to those Fenland Fools - enough to put me off ever going to Norwich - it is enough to wake Hereward...
Posted by The Englishman at 8:05 PM
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You a Brummie?
" There'll always be an England or is it Britain?"
They have poked the hornet's nest of national identity up in Birmingham....
Posted by The Englishman at 7:14 AM
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November 24, 2005
Gee Thanks
::::Thanksgiving at Plymouth UK:::: - see we do celebrate as well!
To my American reader - have a good one !
Things that Americans can only say on Thanksgiving
01. Talk about huge breasts!
02. Tying the legs together keeps the inside moist.
03. It's Cool Whip time!
04. If I don't undo my pants, I'll burst!
05. That's one terrific spread!
06. I'm in the mood for a little dark meat.
07. Are you ready for seconds yet?
08. It's a little dry, do you still want to eat it?
09. Just wait your turn, you'll get some!
10. Don't play with your meat.
11. Just spread the legs open and stuff it in.
12. Do you think you'll be able to handle all these people at once?
13. I didn't expect everyone to come at once!
14. You still have a little bit on your chin.
Posted by The Englishman at 11:08 AM
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November 23, 2005
Book Buying
Obviously you have already bought your copy the The Worstall's Bogged, but if you haven't please also pop a copy of Our Island Story into your Amazon Shopping basket - they are trying to get a lot sold this week to influence the charts! And why not.
Posted by The Englishman at 4:46 PM
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November 21, 2005
From Bradford
If you, like me, were wondering about the circumstances of the horrible murder of the Policewoman as she came across an armed robbery of a Travel Agents in Bradford - why were the robbers so well tooled up for a simple hit, why the massive police convoy of the suspects etc, then this commentary from a local may help.
In that area of Bradford, there's a whole host of front businesses, travel agents, takeaways, taxis, etc, running laundering to cover for the drug and pimping operations. Like all such operations nationwide, it's gang-managed. This sounds like some internecine fallout, hence the armed convoy from London, etc. In every walk of life there, from Plod operations and Council policy implementation, down to corner shop counter transactions, corruption is the name of the game....
Travel Agents offer many services, including money changing, and in this area the regular moving of family goods and people to and from the sub-continent, and all this in a largely cash-based sub-economy. A more cynical observer might also comment that the international movement of peoples without the correct paperwork is also an expensive and cash-based industry that requires a degree of management. However, drugs and industrial-scale pimping is the major industry in Bradford.
Of course I wouldn't suggest that this particular Travel Agent was anything but a regular operation, but the thieving scum might have thought it was a front for a rival gang.....
Posted by The Englishman at 8:29 PM
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November 17, 2005
Haka nonsense
A lot in the papers about how the English team should respond to the All Blacks Haka.
Telegraph | Sport | Cotton the pick in facing down the haka
"Look at the big poofs dancing . . ." Fran Cotton, Otley, Yorkshire, 1979
It may have lacked the poetic genius of Shakespeare, the Oscar-winning rhetoric of Mel Gibson, but did Fran Cotton's jocular debunking of the haka inspire the North to their famous 21-9 victory over the mighty All Blacks of 26 years ago, a game which has become part of rugby union folklore?
Letters to the Editor The Times
Sir, ...The time has come for the English team to face down this intimidation with our traditional, but equally unsettling, morris dance.
BOB DUFFIELD
London SW19
I have always preferred the suggestion of a more traditional English response - "Front rank kneel, make ready, middle rank p'sent, rear rank fire; p'sent, fire; p'sent, fire.. full details are here and below..
Explanation of the Position of each Rank in the Firings,
by Battalions, Wings, or Grand Divisions.
Front Rank Kneeling
Ready. Bring the firelock briskly up to the recover, catching it in the left hand; and
without stopping, sink down with a quick motion upon the right knee, keeping
the left foot fast, the butt end of the firelock, at the same moment, falling upon
the ground; then cock; and instantly seize the cock and steel together in the
right hand, holding the piece firm in the left, about the middle of that part
which is between the lock and the swell of the stock; the point of the left thumb
to be close to the swell, and pointing upwards.
As the body is sinking, the right knee is to be thrown so far back that the left
leg may be right up and down: the right foot a little turned out: the body
straight, and the head as much up as if shouldered; the firelock must be
upright., and the butt about four inches to the, right of the inside of the left
foot.
Present. Bring the firelock down firmly to the present, by sliding the left hand to -the
full extent of the arm, along the sling, without letting the motion tell; the right
hand at the same time springing up the butt by the cock so high against the
right shoulder, that the head may not be too much lowered in taking aim: the
right cheek to be close to the butt; the left eye shut, and the fore-finger of the
right hand on the trigger; look along the barrel with the right eye from the
breech-pin to the muzzle, and remain steady.
Fire. Pull the trigger strong with the fore-finger, and when fired, remain looking on
the aim, while you can count one-two; then spring up nimbly on the left leg
keeping the body erect, and the left foot fast, bringing the right heel to the
hollow the left; at the same time drop the firelock to the priming position. -
Half-cock and proceed with the priming and loading motions as before
directed.
Rules and Regulations
1816 Drill Manual Page 30
Centre Rank.
Make Ready. Spring the firelock briskly to the recover; as soon as the left hand seizes the
firelock above the lock, raise the right elbow a little, placing the thumb of that
hand upon the cock, with the fingers open by the plate of the lock; and then, as
quick as possible, cock the piece, by dripping the elbow, and forcing down the
cock with the thumb, step at the same time with the right foot a moderate pace
to the right, and keeping the left fast, seize the small of the butt with the right
hand: the piece must be held in this position perpendicular, and opposite the
left side of the face; the butt close to the breast, but not pressed; the body
straight, and full to the front, and the head erect.
Present. As in the foregoing explanation for the front rank.
Fire. As in explanation for front rank, with this difference, that as soon as fired, and
after dwelling on the aim as directed, the firelock is to be dropped briskly to
the priming position; the left foot being at the same time drawn up to the right,
and, immediately after the firelock is thrown up to the shoulder, the men spring
to the left and cover their file leaders.
Rear Rank.
Make Ready. Recover and cock, as before directed for the center rank, and, as the firelock is
brought to the recover, step briskly to the right: a full pace, at the same time
placing the left heel about six inches before the point of the right foot. The
body to be kept straight, and, as square to the front as possible.
Present. As in explanation for the centre rank.
Fire. As in explanation for the center rank: after shouldering, the men step to the left
and cover their file leaders as the center rank does.
In firing with the front rank standing, that rank makes ready, etc. as specified
in the article relative to the platoon exercise.
Officers. N.B. In giving words of command, as well in as out of the ranks, officers are to
stand perfectly steady, and in their proper position; their swords held firmly in
the full of the right hand, with the upper part of the blade resting against the
shoulder, the right wrist against the hip, and the elbow drawn back.
In firing by grand divisions, the centre officer falls back, on the preparative,
into the fourth rank, and is replaced by the covering serjeant.
Posted by The Englishman at 1:53 AM
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November 11, 2005
Epitaphs
Epitaphs of the War - Rudyard Kipling, Book, etext
COMMON FORM
If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied.
Follow the link for the rest...
Posted by The Englishman at 6:58 AM
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In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Don't break the faith, remember and fight on.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:49 AM
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November 10, 2005
DD refuses to go all the way
BBC NEWS | Politics | Davis wants England-only voting
Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish MPs will be barred from voting on English laws if Conservative leadership hopeful David Davis becomes prime minister.
He pledged England-only votes in the House of Commons - but ruled out a separate English Parliament.
"My view is that we should have an English vote - otherwise we would have to go to the expense of another set of MPs."
I have some sympathy for his view that we don't want yet another bunch of MPs at the public expense but a dog's dinner of each constituent part of the United Kingdom having different types of parliaments is just not right - be bold and grab the nettle of setting out a coherent policy of constitutional reform. And if you are worried about the cost of extra MPs then may I suggest you look at MEPs - now there is a way to save some money!
Posted by The Englishman at 8:20 PM
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November 9, 2005
A suitable banner
Silent Running Blog Archive Crusader Boar Prints England, Pigs, Help a blogger, Right up my street.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:17 AM
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November 3, 2005
Remembrance
To add the nifty little Poppy appeal graphic to your blog just cut and paste this into your template:
<a href="http://www.poppy.org.uk" target="_blank"><img
src="http://www.poppy.org.uk/IMAGES/MAIN/
poppyappeal107.jpg" width="127" height="107"
vspace="4" hspace="4" alt="Support The Poppy
Appeal 2005" border="0"></a>
Posted by The Englishman at 9:39 AM
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November 2, 2005
Huh?
Natalie Solent puzzles over what she calls self-antonyms - I have always known them as autoantonyms - cleave, dust etc. Another one of our little tricks to prevent foreigners learn our language!
For more see Nym Words > Autoantonyms
Posted by The Englishman at 9:14 AM
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October 31, 2005
Caledonia, oderint dum metuant
Wonko's World leads on:
"Breaking news yesterday was the article in the Sunday Times by "Posh Scottish columnist with an English accent" A A Gill. The delightful Mr Gill managed a full 2 page diatribe on why he hates the English...
I must admit I couldn't be arsed to read it all, though I think the headline wasn't consistent with what I did read, still "Oderint dum metuant" and leave it to the fenland king
Posted by The Englishman at 11:38 PM
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Two Thirds British
BBC NEWS | Magazine | Can you pass a citizenship test?
I scored 10 out of 15 so I suppose they will put me back on the boat.
Posted by The Englishman at 10:53 AM
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October 21, 2005
Sacr'd to Nelson
A small chest at The Castle has these handles, "Sacr'd to Nelson - Trafalgar" - probably just a cheap souvenir 200 years ago but rather nice now.
Posted by The Englishman at 3:02 PM
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Trafalgar Day
A day to celebrate a great Victory so slipping back to my youthful days before the mast as a boy sailor I will be happy to join in the traditional Naval celebrations, but I'm not getting in that barrel again....
Posted by The Englishman at 7:24 AM
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October 20, 2005
Tally Ho!
BBC NEWS | UK | Hunting survives as ban bent and broken
As a survey for BBC News reveals that more people are taking part in various forms of fox-hunting than a year ago - before February's ban - rural affairs correspondent Tom Heap looks at how the pursuit is managing to survive. ....
Posted by The Englishman at 6:34 AM
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October 6, 2005
Not Hunting
Driving through the Vale this morning I came across the delightful sight of the Hunt out exercising hounds in the fog:
Obviously they weren't hunting just as I wasn't driving along taking photos. Sorry for the quality.
To complete the modern view of hunting they had a Black guy on the quadbike, pictured here following the hounds - I presume he was the one with the gun for when they found a fox, unless they were indulging in a bit of drag hunting.
Posted by The Englishman at 10:59 AM
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October 4, 2005
Got the message?
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October 3, 2005
WeIcome to the countryside.
Sign spotted painted onto a wall in Devizes:
Wiltshire County Council
Designated Townie
Free Area
Image taken on 3/10/2005 13:3
Posted by The Englishman at 12:38 PM
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September 30, 2005
Letter from the Middle East conflict
Turning out some boxes I found this letter from my father to an old friend of his (who later became my Godfather) - an interesting snippet of a forgotten corner of the war.
558215, L/Cpl Daw
C. Squadron
Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry
M.E.F.
17 x 41
My Dear Billie,
As usual I have been putting off my letter writing as long as possible although this time I might have a little excuse as we have been on the move, here, there and everywhere since the beginning of May. First of all of course it was Raschid Ali (My note - the pro Axis revolt in Iraq that the British quelled), actually we had a rather dull time in that stunt doing patrol-work, then as soon as that finished we trotted along to Syria, perhaps you read in the papers that this crowd was mixed up in the XXXXX (Censored) do, since that stunt I will never again believe that the French dont hold us any ill feeling, not their airmen anyway, and we XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX brought down six bombers in as many minutes, I had a grandstand view. Where we were all underground one minute the chaps were all out on top going mad the next. Well, we had a very pleasant fortnight around XXXXXX which we found to satisfy our wants wonderfully, Champagne was comparatively cheap. To continue my miniature Odyssey again perhaps you read that we had a finger in the Iran Pie, unluckily I managed to spend that five weeks in dock in XXXXXXXX, a very boring time as they kept me in bed all the time. I was still more fed up when the chaps came back singing the praises of Tehran, it seems they could do no wrong and as for beer and cigarettes, they were dirt cheap. I think the Russians were one of the highlights
NOTE: The Wiltshire Yeomanry went out to Palestine at the beginning of the war on their horses and tried to keep order amongst the rebellious Jews (for more on the Jewish Terrorists, who even "proposed intervening in the Second World War on the side of Nazi Germany to attain their help in expelling Britain from Mandate Palestine" please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lehi_(group) . They then turned their attentions on the Iraqis as mentioned above before being involved in the vicious battles of Syria which was a Vichy French possession. The Vichy French fought surprisingly and unexpectedly hard . The bulk of the Allies were Australians who fought a brave campaign, and to be fair there were also Free French fighting - I believe there was a Free French Foreign Legion involved and at the end the Vichy Legionnaires just applied to sign up with them. My father's war, though not his danger and suffering, ended at El Alemain where he was captured and he spent the rest of the war as a POW.
A comment from a reader:
I tried posting a comment on your post about Lance Corporal Daw's campaign against the Vichy French. For some reason my post was bounced by a spam blocking service.
My father and stepfather both served in that campaign (which never got a medal because it was an imperial police action). It was called "the war of the little columns" because they kept hurrying from place to place to fight first the Vichy French in Lebanon and Syria, then the Arab revolt in Iraq, then the occupation of Iran, together with the Russians.
I don't agree that most of the soldiers were Australian. One book I read made a point that most of the troops were English - specifically, "English", not Scottish, Irish, or New Zealanders. It was a feature of press useage at the time that regiments from Scotland, say, were identified as being Scottish, but shire regiments from England were called by their traditional name or just a unit number - "Yorkshire Regiment" or "9th Armoured brigade". People thought the English weren't getting the credit they deserved.
Apart from that, the troops achieved their aims despite shortages of arms and poor food.
It was also in this time that the last cavalry charge of the British Army took place. Against an aircraft. An airborne aircraft. It was flying low towards them and the colonel ordered "Draw sabres and charge!". The pilot didn't shoot, possibly from sheer astonishment. It was a yeomanry regiment, I think perhaps the Warwickshires.
You can post this comment if you like.
I read your blog occasionally. I share the eurosceptic tone and the English pride. These islands have done more for the world than any other offshore island. Invented cricket for starters. And the most insane sport trophy - the Ashes. I tried explaining it to some Dutch and German people once and they were baffled. "You mean you care about this ?"
Best regards,
Jim
Posted by The Englishman at 8:51 PM
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September 13, 2005
What a game!
Speeches and articles > The Queen's message to the England cricket team
The Queen's message to England cricket captain Michael Vaughan following his team's victory in the Ashes series, 12 September 2005
Warmest congratulations to you, the England team and all in the squad for the magnificent achievement of regaining the Ashes. This has been a truly memorable series and both sides can take credit for giving us all such a wonderfully exciting and entertaining summer of cricket at its best.
ELIZABETH R
Posted by The Englishman at 6:26 AM
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September 12, 2005
Vital information for Englishmen this morning
With a tight first innings "victory", the likely draw and hence winning of The Ashes, (Dear American readers - give up now - you will never understand this), will be fair enough. However I'm sure a little help from the weather gods today will not go amiss..
BBC - Weather Centre - 5 Day Forecast in Fahrenheit for London, United Kingdom
The phone will be "off" this afternoon.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:18 AM
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September 9, 2005
More Cash Please
Lead story on BBC NEWS | England
Rural campaigners say England's countryside will be gone in a generation if we do not change our ways.
Oh yes it is the Campaign for the Prevention of Rural Enterprise at work again looking for cash, sorry that should have read " it is the Campaign to Protect Rural England encouraging everyone who enjoys visiting the countryside to join the debate".
Lead problem - Tree Sparrow's number's are down - strangely The Castle is blessed with one of Southern Britain's largest flocks of Tree Sparrows so I know a little about them - they used to be rare and had a huge population boom in the 1960s and are now rare again, they are also hard to spot which makes identifying them difficult. And of course Sparrow Hawk numbers have vastly increased, go figure!
Farm workers are disappearing - Yes, farming is becoming a largely mechanised industry, farm work is hard, dirty, dangerous and poorly paid. Of course I wish I was back twenty years ago when a gang of us would be out in the fields shifting bales, happiest days of my life, but it is progress it now takes one machine a quarter of the time to do the same job. And modern farming frees up more land for wildlife, hence my Tree Sparrows have five acres set- aside just for them!
No what the CPRE means is that retired Major Twittering-Twitt (Catering Corp Rtd.), who runs the local branch, can't find a chap to do the garden for a few bob after working a long week on the farm down the road, and that the Memsahib can't find a woman "to do" because they have cars and drive into town for a proper job. And the pub no longer has horse brasses and dimpled glasses with handles with the Landlord welcoming him every lunchtime as the pub's most important customer; it is now a modern eatery where young telecommutes laugh about foreign holidays and how much money they make.
The British Countryside is like the climate, it is changing and always has done. And above the desire for Picture Postcard Poverty should be recognising that the locals deserve to be able to enjoy the material progress the rest of the country has.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:45 AM
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September 6, 2005
Sniffing Bicycle Seats Special
I'm not a fan of cycling so the Tour of Britain 2005 has not interested me, even if Britney Spears was ride naked on her bike on the Tour of Britain 2005 I wouldn't get my interest up. But the anti-English attitude of the Tour of Britain 2005 organisers who seem to be a huge bunch of pricks gets on my tits, so cum and join an orgy of protest by linking to Tour of Britain 2005.
Posted by The Englishman at 3:06 PM
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August 27, 2005
Country Pastimes
National Organisation of Beaters and Pickers Up - NOBs
Posted by The Englishman at 10:10 PM
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August 24, 2005
Daily Devilment
The Devil's Advocate is a regular column with a cult following built up over years of appearing in several UK regional newspapers. The author is the mythical Barry Beelzebub who shares with us his wicked, irreverent and controversial thoughts and views on the world today.
One for the daily blogroll..
Posted by The Englishman at 10:53 AM
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August 18, 2005
Miles better
BBC NEWS | England | North Yorkshire | Group hails 'miles better' signs
Anti-metric campaigners are celebrating after a council was forced to modify 30 of its public rights of way signs.
City of York Council erected the path markers with distances in kilometres (km) instead of miles (m), which is illegal under highways regulations.
On Thursday, the authority said it had ordered plastic discs to fix over the offending metric distances.
The Active Resistance to Metrication, which takes direct action to change metric signs, welcomed the decision.
"Each time we are successful, it is a small but significant step towards eradicating them from our country.
"The imperial weights and measures of this country are part of our traditions and part of our culture.
"The attempts to impose metric signs is one by stealth and deception and has been going on for many years."
Hurrah - if only we could turn the tide completely. More information from the good guys here. As you might expect the enemy are the usual suspects...
Posted by The Englishman at 9:46 PM
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August 16, 2005
Counting..
Michelle Malkin brings to attention a case where:
"Eenie, meenie, minie, moe;" may have caused offence.
What she (probably) doesn't realise is that this rhyme is an echo of a very long ago past - a preRoman counting system that persisted in England up to a few years ago. My local example is :
Ain, Tain, Tethera, Methera, Mimp,
Ayta, Slayta, Laura, Dora, Dik,
Ain-a-dik, Tain-a-dik, Tethera-dik, Methera-dik, Mit,
Ain-a-mit, Tain-a-mit, Tethera-mit, Gethera-mit, Ghet.
(1 -20 in Wiltshire Sheep Counting System)
So chant in pride - you are following a least twenty centuries of example.
Posted by The Englishman at 12:18 AM
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August 14, 2005
Sign me up - for the Witanagemot Woundup
Little Man in a Toque: The Witanagemot Club
Little Man in a Toque is proud to unveil an exciting new initiative - The Witanagemot Club. Hey! Yes it is exciting.
If you are a blogger, and if you are pissed off with the assymetrical cack-handedness of those crazy imbeciles at Westminster who deny England parity with the other nations of the UK, then this is your big chance: Join The Witanagemot Club today.
Posted by The Englishman at 8:07 AM
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August 7, 2005
Victory
by two runs, the pubs just opening, a sunny afternnon...it doesn't get much better.
Posted by The Englishman at 12:35 PM
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July 22, 2005
UXB - the series
BBC NEWS | UK | Experts hail 'forensic goldmine', lots of evidence, lots of witnesses, with luck we will find the bastards quickly and lock them up for four or five years until some "Peace Initiative" means we let them go again!
Pity there wasn't an armed citizen or two who could have tapped them as they looked in disbelief at their non-exploding rucksacks and wondered how they were going to run away, what with their tiny hard-ons hindering movement, as they were expecting they were about to be ravished by a bunch of virgins, or is it raisins?
Posted by The Englishman at 6:46 AM
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July 19, 2005
One for the blogroll
Waking Hereward
Stirring from a Raj-induced trance, Hereward, the man from the fens and his merry band of bog hoppers are doing their level best to wrest our Country back off the wild men from the north.....
Posted by The Englishman at 7:49 PM
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July 15, 2005
What Fridays are for
When you have finished this week's "Dear Hugh" letters may I suggest:
Walking through town on Saturday afternoon I am accosted by a very nice elderly lady who is collecting on behalf of the Alzheimer's Society.
"But I gave you a fiver just ten minutes ago," I tell her, as she waves her collecting tin at me.
Fear, panic and confusion flash through her eyes as I walk away, whistling. I know it's wrong, but sometimes you just have to do it.
Posted by The Englishman at 9:52 AM
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July 13, 2005
Understanding
The Daily Ablution brings us the latest in helping us to Understand the minds of the bombers:
Today's Guardian gives space to Dilpazier Aslam, a "Guardian trainee journalist" who suggests that one shouldn't be shocked by Thursday's suicide bombings - such a reaction would be inappropriate because, among other reasons:
"Shocked would be to suggest that the bombings happened through no responsibility of our own."
Yes, ladies and gentlemen - we bear responsibility for the murderous actions of maniacal members of a religious cult. An apology is certainly called for - the queue forms to the right.
Needless to say, there are other reasons why shock is inappropriate. Mr. Aslam explains:
"Shocked would be to say that we don't understand how, in the green hills of Yorkshire, a group of men given all the liberties they could have wished for could do this."
I too have tried and failed to get a glimmer of how young men can be so brain washed into leaving family and loved ones, enter a carriage full of strangers and in cold blood blow them and themselves up. But I don't want to "understand" them so I can sympathise them. I want us to understand them in the way hunters understand their prey. In the way Mr FM "understands" foxes...
Posted by The Englishman at 12:45 PM
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July 11, 2005
Commemoration
Commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of the end of World War Two - the latest stories and photographs from the commemorative events.
See also:
Telegraph | News | We will remember them
The Queen defied the threat of terrorist attack yesterday to ride down the Mall in an open-top Range Rover at the head of veterans of the Second World War.
Against the backdrop of the London bombings, she made her gesture in front of a crowd of 250,000 people as Britain celebrated the 60th anniversary of the end of the war.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:45 AM
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July 10, 2005
Terrorist bombings - a long time ago
Doodlebug - a touching reminiscence.
Posted by The Englishman at 10:16 PM
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July 8, 2005
Business as usual
So has the bombing changed anything - apart from the human cost to a thankfully small number of people?
In my hours on the London bound train yesterday, and in Reading and Newbury, both towns with close links to the Capital, I saw and heard nothing of shock or outrage. Surprise, yes. But this attack has been seen as inevitable for a long time. And before this bunch we had the IRA killing in our streets. So we are not indifferent to it but we are defiant and inured to it. As the Windmill used to proudly boast "We never close" so business as usual is the best response. Sod'em we carry on.
The other reactions in the media are all predictable. The warmth and generosity of response from America is particularly welcome; Tony saying the right words, but failing to sound statesman like; even the scum saying it is either Isreal's or our own fault are reasuring in their consistancy, it means nothing has changed.
We carry on, but with renewed vigour.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:03 AM
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