Cameron's Britain - Food Poverty

In recent months we have seen news stories about the increased use of food banks and an increase in conditions like rickets all because people can not afford food in their diet. More and more and more working people are falling into poverty in the UK. All this in a country that is one of the richest in the world. This is Cameron's Britain, his legacy for the nation.

Although we have seen unemployment falling with people taking part time work to get off of benefits, so have wages in real terms while food prices continue to increase. This has resulted in an increase in the numbers of people on low wages are not earning enough money to meet their most basic nutritional needs for maintaining a healthy diet. While wages are starting increase now, for the first time in years, these aren't increases aren't being seen by those earning the lowest wages in their pay packets, they are wage increases for those that are already well paid. Personally I know of many people that haven't had a pay rise in the last five years at all.

In the last year there have been a three fold increase in the number of food parcels being given out to people who can't afford to buy food compared to the year before. These parcels go to families that don't have enough money to feed themselves and they are either referred by Care Professionals, the Police or Citizen Advice Bureau in most instances. This rise in the usage of food banks has partly been due to delays in benefit payments caused by the introduction of the Universal Credit System, but that is not the whole story and it is not just the unemployed or those on benefits who are using them. Increasingly there are more people on low income or debt getting parcels.

Things are continuing to get worse and now food poverty in the UK is becoming a public health issue of the future. The UK Faculty of Public Health announced that poverty is forcing people to have dangerously poor diets and is leading to the return of rickets and gout, basically diseases of the Victorian age that affect bones and joints. The public health professionals' body have called for a national food policy as concerns rise over malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies in children. This has led them to ask all political parties to back a living wage to help combat illnesses and malnutrition in the UK.

At the extreme end of the spectrum Doctors and hospitals have seen a rise in children suffering from ailments caused by poor diet which has been linked the trend to people's inability to afford quality food. According to the latest figures show there has been a 1nineteen percent increase in people hospitalised in England and Wales for malnutrition over the past twelve months. The Faculty of Public Health has warned that ill-health arising from poor diets was worsening throughout Britain "through extreme poverty.

The increase in cases of gout and malnutrition being seen in hospital admission statistics are manifestations of specific dietary deficiencies caused by poor diet in the poor. With food prices up twelve percent, fuel prices up double-figure percentages and wages down since David Cameron's Government came to power poor people are starting to eat unhealthily. People on low incomes are left with the problem heating and lighting their homes or feeding themselves and their children. In the end they are doing neither of these things well as there isn't the money to do both.

Currently the UK has 3.8 million children in extreme poverty and there is a growing need for food banks because of Government policy and the fact they are failing to acknowledge there is a problem at all. The one of biggest group of users of food banks are hard working poor families who have lost benefits, live on low and declining wages and or they have fallen foul of draconian benefits sanctions. This is a disastrous and damning indictment on current welfare policy and a shame on the nation. The Faculty of Public Health said of food banks that they are "providing a real and valued service" and that they are "actually keeping people alive."

David Cameron has hailed food banks as a happy example of "big society" where charity's provide for Government defiances and cuts. Former Education secretary Michael Gove suggested that food bank users were themselves to blame, guilty of taking decisions that showed they were "not best able to manage their finances". While Duncan Smith, secretary of state for work and pensions, said he "welcomed" the work done by local food bank initiatives, but then he would since the free food saves him having to increase benefits to a level where people can feed themselves.

The whole situation reminds me of the scene from the musical Oliver where Oliver after daring to ask for more gruel is dragged by the ear by Mrs. Corney, the matron at Oliver's workhouse, to the room where the Mr Bumble, a beadle in the workhouse, is enjoying a large roast dinner with the benefactors of the workhouse who are shocked the at the half starved malnourished boy asking for more food. In this case Mr Bumble is David Cameron and the benefactors are the people that keep him in power and who are blind to the problems of the real world.

One of the functions of a Government in a country as rich as the UK should be to feed it people and in that respect David Cameron's Government has failed to meet the grade with people being reduced to fall back on charity. What is worse is the fact we are starting to see a return of health conditions that were a thing of past due to malnourishment. This frankly disgraceful in this modern age in a country such as this. Maybe a new slogan for the Conservative party at the next election could "Vote Conservative and Starve".

Fear a powerful weapon

It is interesting to look at the headlines and how the press and politics work together. On Friday Theresa May announced the raising UK's terror threat level from "substantial" and the Prime Minister appeared and said that Islamic State extremists are attempting to establish a Islamic state and that they a threat to our security. Dutifully the press ran just the headlines the politicians to give them the mandate to use emergency  powers to rush through legislation by publishing stories that whipped up fears that we are about to be attacked by a group of extremists.  

The fact remains that your chances of being killed in a terrorist attack are extremely low, in fact your more likely to die falling out of the bed, or drowning in a bath. Yet newspapers are printed with headlines that are all full of doom and Politicians appear with grave faces to warn us that Jihadists are planning atrocities on British soil. The chances are we are at no real greater risk today than we were the week before. The threat is always there as long as conflict remains part of this world.

We have been here before between 1971 and 1997 when Provisional Irish Republican Army were not only carrying out attacks in Northern Ireland but were also attacking mainland Britain. The chances of a terrorist attack in those years was greater than the chances of it happening today. Britain didn't crumble then and there was little knee-jerk reaction from the Government of the time. They just got on and dealt with the problem and the people just got on with there lives. Just as we did when the Germans were bombing the nation overnight during the Second World War, people got up in the mornings and just carried on.

Just after Theresa May announced the raising UK's terror threat, Conservative MP came out of the woodwork to tell us how frightened we should be and how real the risk was. The David Cameron said he would need new measures like:

• Emergency legislation to make communications data available to police and security services 
• Working with the Kurds to make sure they had the arms needed to battle IS militants 
• Assisting the US by providing intelligence gathering 
• Delivering aid supplies to communities displaced by IS 
• Changes in levels of policing in the UK, especially the numbers of armed police

And all this based on raising of a threat level not because of a piece of specific intelligence, but due to developments in Syria and Iraq where terrorist groups could be planning attacks against the west. It is all based on fear and no evidence that those fears are real.

 In this country we have dealt with the threat before and one we have the experience to deal with again. It was done in the past with out panic and without any special measures being put in place. Back in the days of the Provisional Irish Republican Army campaign it was harder than it is today to detect the terrorists entering the country, because it is far simpler to cross the Irish sea than it is to come into the UK from the Middle East. Some of  what the prime minister wants is just reactionary drivel that might impress some but probably will have no affect on curbing the threat.

The fact is the world has never been a safe place, there have been wars and conflict from the dawn of mankind and it not going to go way soon. The threat of war is always around the corner as is the threat of a terrorist attack. Yes the world is a more dangerous place than it has ever been but that doesn't mean we need to leave in fear. All we have to do is understand the threat so we can take the right measures to analyse the risks and then put in place measures to minimise them.  The knee-jerk reaction that we have seen start over the weekend is not the right response and will result in poorly thought out polices that hurt the freedoms of the people of Britain more than the terrorist themselves.

X-Factor 2014

Tonight sees the return of the X-Factor to our television screens. The show is now in its 11th year and the format is becoming predictable to say the least. People with stars in their eyes will appear on our screens some of which will be so awful they should never have been let near a microphone while others will have some sort of talent for singing karaoke, and then there might just be one really good singer that the show goes on to ruin. 

You might think I'm being rather sceptical of the show but it is becoming tired and as a show it has lost it's own X Factor in recent years. It really has failed to deliver on the promise it uses get people to appear on the show, i.e to make them international stars. Although, some of the acts have gone onto do something they really never have found that enduring music star or act that goes on and on, or makes onto the world stage. Maybe that is because it lives in the popular music genre and it is basically run by a popular music mogul and it done for money and not for art.

In recent years the audience has declined since its peek in 2010 when Simon Cowell stopped judging the show when he moved to lead the judging panel on US version of the X Factor. This drop in the audience had led to people wondering if ITV would pull the plug on the show which takes up so much of it schedule on a Saturday evening.  

Year	Average Audience
2004	7.40 million
2005	8.43 million
2006	8.27 million
2007	8.57 million
2008	10.51 million
2009	13.00 million
2010	14.13 million
2011	12.41 million
2012	9.63 million
2013	9.45 million

This year sees major changes in the judging panel with the return of Simon Cowell who will be hoping to get the shows audience figures back to some where near their former highs and stop the rot. He is joined by the returning Cheryl Cole, new judge Mel B and Louis Walsh who is the only judge that has appeared in every series of the show.

It will be interesting to see how it does this autumn. Will it be the damp squid that it has been for the last few years or will they be able to do something with  the shows now tired format and bring it back to life, or will this once family favourite just be just something to avoid?

More Surveillance Soon

Home Secretary Theresa May announced the raising UK's terror threat level from "substantial" to "severe" in response to conflicts in Iraq and Syria. This was followed by a press conference where the prime minister, David Cameron, who said that the said Islamic State extremists are attempting to establish a Islamic state. This he believes represents a "greater and deeper threat to our security than we have known before". In order to do this he is ready to introduce emergency legislation.

Back in July the government rushed through a act of parliament called the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014 using emergency procedures without any real debate or public consultation. This was forced through in response to concerns that the telecommunications companies would start deleting data held under the European Unions Data Retention Regulations of 2009 due to Court of Justice of the European Union ruling which said that keeping data on individuals was unlawful as it was interference with the fundamental rights of individuals to a private life. The 2014 act, introduced in July, increased the data collected under the Data Retention Regulations and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, the original snoopers charter. 

The table below gives an idea of the changes that have been made to the interception of communications in the UK from the introduction of  European Unions Data Retention Regulations of 2009 and the purposed changes that the Government have talked about in the past which we could see being implemented soon.

European Unions Data Retention Regulations of 2009

Covers - Phone Companies, ISPs, Mobile Phone Communications, Internet Usage, Email usage within the UK Data Stored - source and destination of communication, time and date, type of communication and equipment type. Length time retained - 12 months Data Available to - Security Services, Police, HM Customs and Revenue with limited data available to other national and local government agencies.

Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014

Covers - Phone Companies, ISPs, Mobile Phone Communications, Internet Usage, Email usage (including webmail) within the UK and requires organisations outside the UK providing the same sort of services to keep the same data on UK citizens communications. Data Stored - source and destination of communication, time and date, type of communication and equipment type. Length time retained - 12 months Data Available to - Security Services, Police, HM Customs and Revenue with limited data available to other national and local government agencies.

Possible New Emergency Powers Act

Covers - Postal Services, Phone Companies, ISPs, Mobile Phone Communications, Internet Usage, Email usage (including webmail) within the UK and requires organisations outside the UK providing the same sort of services to keep the same data on UK citizens communications. Data Stored - source and destination of communication, time and date, type of communication, equipment type, location of mobile devices, details of messages sent on social media, voice calls sent over the internet, web browsing history, file transfers details, usage of messaging services, online gaming history etc. Length time retained - 12 months Data Available to - Security Services, Police, HM Customs and Revenue with limited data available to other national and local government agencies.

Any purposed legislation will  see major increases to the amount of data being collected on it. Already when moving from the 2009 legislation to the 2014  legislation we saw the government increasing the Surveillance Sate while claiming ot was just trying to give itself the same powers as it had before. 

We know from the press that the Home Secretary, Theresa May, wants more power to snoop on the British public and she will use any excuse to get it. In the newspapers of the past she has called on greater internet powers to control gangs, stop paedophiles, serious crime, terrorists etc. In fact she will use anything that will get her support despite in every major poll the public disagreeing with her increasing her powers to create a Big Brother State. With the prime minister, David Cameron,in the mood he is in and willing to use emergency powers she just might get what she wants at last.

I believe that the government is interfering more and more in our private lives and has the power to watch us like it has never done before in minute detail, knowing where we are, who we are talking to and what we are talking about. This is a dangerous shift that affects our human rights and our democracy unless measures are put in place to make it transparent in the courts of law and require bodies outside of government to oversee requests of information. It is only at this point that should data be made available, and not at the say of some lowly official with the police or the government.

The fact is that groups of people that Theresa May wants to monitor will find ways around the any measures the government puts in place, just as spies have done for countless centuries, to carry on exchanging information. Yes we might pick up a few people along the way but the people the government are really after will still get away and they will be has hidden from the authorities as they are now. If you are determined enough you will find a way to get round such data collection systems.  

What we are risking with moves like this are ever increasing state control through self censorship both in the press and of the individual. There are already controls in the UK that stops us seeing some websites how long before these powers are also increased, as they have been in other counties like Russia who are implementing measures to control the internet and other forms communications. Before long the basic principle of the Internet being a free place will be just a pipe dream of its creator and everything we do in our lives will be recorded.

Bill Kerr dies at 92

South African born Australian Bill Kerr died yesterday watching his favourite show on television, the American show Seinfeld, at his home in Australia . He was the last of the major cast members of the 1950's radios "Handcock's Half Hour" to leave this earth, and once a familiar voice to millions and still can be heard on BBC Radio 4 Extra, even today.  

He was born on 10th June 1922 into the lime light, and his first appearance was on the stage in his mothers arms. He use to famously say "I was such a hit, I retired in 1922 and made a comeback at seven". He grew up in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia and by the age of 10 he began to work in radio for ABC in 1932 and preformed child parts for about 8 years, making his first of many feature film appearances in 1934 as a blind child. Eventually the Second World War came and interrupted the his career.

After the war he moved to Britain and worked in variety shows and went to appear on BBC radio series Variety Bandbox. He was billed as s "the boy from Wagga-Wagga.", a place many of the British audience thought of as a comically surreal, end of the earth, magical place somewhere left of Narnia. During the time on the on the show he used the catch phase "I'm only here for four minutes." which became the trademark of his act.

In the fifties Bill Kerr became the Australian lodger in the hit radio show "Handcock's Half Hour"a show that is till being repeated today on BBC radio 4 Extra. Originally his character was brighter than Tony Handcok's, the shows star, but as the programme was developed he became dim-witted character who became the butt of Hancock's jokes. In all he made 102 episodes of the of the radio show, but never appear in the television version of the show because the writers, Galton and Simpson realised they would need a smaller cast for the television version of the show.

He wasn't just know to radio audiences during this time, he was also well known for his theatrical success appearing on the West End stage in both plays and musicals. In addition to this he worked on many films such as "The Dam Busters" in 1955 and "The Wrong Arm of the Law" in 1963. This and other work kept him in Britain until 1979 when he returned to his native Australia to settle in Perth where he concentrated on character roles and appeared in many films, plays and on television until he retired in 2006.

For me I will remember him in "Handcock's Half Hour" as a voice that became familiar to me as my love of radio grew as child, a format I still prefer to that of television. So influential where the shows that he made with Tony Handcock and Sid James that they were included in the underground radio stations of the BBC's Wartime Broadcasting Service (WTBS). A radio service designed to provide information and morale-boosting broadcasts for 100 days after a nuclear attack. 

I wish family, friends and his many fans all over the world many laughs in the future after the sadness of his pasting is no more. He left us countless hours of his work to enjoy for many years to come and for new generations to enjoy. 

Time to Respect Boarders

It is time that Valdinir Putin and the Russian forces that he ultimately commands started respecting international boarders and stopped warmongering. The people of the nation of Ukraine should have the right to live without being invaded because of one mad man who is obsessed  with recreating the Soviet Union by force if necessary.  It is also time that the west acted with more sanctions to make it clear what this man is doing is wrong or he will just think he can get away with it and just do it again to another country.

It is clear from reports in all but the Russian press that the Russians have crossed over from the Russian boarder and they are supplying the Ukrainian Separatists with arms. Of course this is something that Russia denies and and a message that it propagates through out the world via the television news station Russia Today. A new channel where high profile journalist left the channel because she couldn't be "part of a network that whitewashes the actions of Putin.". Looking at the comments on the Russia Today website nearly all I read supported the Russian view and those that weren't were just spam for Google, all appeared to be of mainly Russian orgin. It is clear the Russian propaganda machine is in full swing.

It is stupid for Russia to claim it has no involvement in the conflict while even the Ukrainian Separatists claim that there have been between 3000 to 4000 Russians fighting on their side, and still could be as far as we know. As we know from the conflict in the Crimea that the Russians are good at lying, when a lot of those men in green with guns all turned out to be Russian soldiers that had been put in place secretly by Putin and his Government to take over the region. As we know Tanks that only the Russians have been seen being used by Ukrainian Separatists, tanks they couldn't have captured from Ukrainian Government forces.

There is talk of the Russians forming a special peacekeeping force of some 5,000 soldiers made up from the some of their parachute regiments. According to Russian military sources the idea is that it is one way  get into a country with bands playing than cheers rather than opposition of the local populace and condemnation from the world. Clearly another of Putin's methods of invading a nation by stealth, all very clever and very devious but after whet happened in Crimea everyone accept the Russian people will see through what he is trying to do. Everyone knows that Putin can't be trusted anymore, the truth is out there to be seen.

The tactic that Putin's and his Government are using is one used before by the USSR when counties once close to them tried to break away. First in Hungary in 1956 when Matyas Rakosi, a Stalinist was replaced by the liberal Imre Nagy. This led to the denunciation of Stalinism which lead to the notion they wanted to be free. The response of the USSR was to send in the the tanks and install a puppet government. Then in 1968 in Czechoslovakia, when the USSR did something similar after it seemed that the country wanted to break free of Soviet control. Basically this is what is happening today, the Ukrainians want stronger ties with Europe which isn't part of Putin's plans so heh as sent in the tanks, albeit in a much more sneaky way.      

NATO and the EU need to be united behind a common policy against this aggression than instability it can cause in the region. It needs to be upholding the right of every nation to have its boarders respected by other nations. For the people to have the right elect governments that then implement the peoples wishes. The governments like the boarders should be respected by other nations too, if elected in free elections without fear and intimation. These are the basic principles of international laws and things that Putin should be respecting and not trying to circumvent. International law and agreements are there to make the world a safer place, it might not always be perfect and it might be open to manipulation, but it is the only thing we have to keep the peace. Putin needs to pull out his troops and stop interfering in another nations business rather than fuelling a war.

Finally I can see a new slogan appearing in come usage "Once a Soviet always a Soviet". Valdinir Putin represents all that was wrong with the old Soviet Union. All those things the people of Russian thought they had got rid of with the fall of communism. Well it is all coming back to haunt them again!

End of the School Holidays

Comes to that time of the year when the sun sets on another set of summer of holidays for the children of Rutand as the schools reopen for their autumn terms. Tomorrow most the children in the county will be returning to their studies after the long break. Some will welcome it and some will hate it, but they all have to do it.

If you ignore the last few weeks, the school children in the area have had a glorious summer weather with the sun beating down day after day. Just what they needed to relax and unwind from the year before and to get out into the fresh air. It lovely here when the sun shines down and the children can get out and about in the village and around the town with their friends. It is also go for the families that stayed in Britain and had lovely holidays in the sun. It really has been a lovely summer weather wise.

Among those returning to school will be my own children, with Emily entering her final GCSE year, Catherine starting her GCSE's and little Lucy loo loo will be a big girl in Year 2 and coming to the of end Key Stage One at the end of this school year somewhere in Leicester. I hope like many parents will be hoping around the country they have a super year in school and they get all they can from it and have every success.

Co-Operative join the dig up the fields Brigade

An unlikely player has joined the dig up the fields Brigade to decimate the British countryside by building a crematorium on a green field site in rural Leicestershire. This is despite objections to the plans from the local council and  residents of the village of Great Glen which 7 miles to the south east of the city of Leicester.

The site of the crematorium is on 30 acres of farmland that is owned by the Co-Operative just off of the A6 London Road. Originally the scheme is rejected by the council on the grounds that that the project failed to meet policies on landscaping and design, however this was overturned by Government inspectors. The council had asked  asked the inspector to hold a public inquiry in the village, however the requests were refused despite the huge opposition to these proposals, by the Government inspectors. In my opinion typical of this Conservative Governments Policy to develop greenfield sites without listening to local people.

The Co-op scheme is opposed by villagers and organisations in Great Glen who do not want the funeral centre on their doorstep. Peter Hockenhull said he and other Great Glen residents had been left "extremely disappointed" by the plans."Villagers have got a number of major issues that concern them," he said."We wants assurance that lorries won't go through the village during construction" While staff at a nearby school said it would be an inappropriate and insensitive site given its proximity to young children.

County councillor for Great Glen, Kevin Feltham, said: "I'm very disappointed he has overruled the decision made by local councillors.". Currently the Council are investigating if they can put in a legal challenge to overturn the Government Inspectors decision. However Leader of the Council, Blake Pain, said there was "little action the council could now take as further appeals could be costly.". This could mean that basically the council have been silenced just because of the process which seems so undemocratic when so many oppose the plan.

Co-Operative are under going restructuring to secure the groups future because of losses inured by its banking business, during the banking crisis and affects the business today. In the local area of the development they have already sold off some 4,700 acres of farmland at the Stoughton Estate, east of Leicester, to health charity the Wellcome Trust. At one point it was hoped the site for the crematorium would be part of this deal, but the land was retained by the Co-Operative for the development of crematorium for their funeral business.

A spokesman for the Co-Operative, according to reports said "We are naturally delighted to have been granted permission". Before going on to say "It has been our belief from the beginning that its construction will be enormously beneficial." Which isn't a lie as the profits will go straight into the Co-Operative's bank account while another 30 archers of land will produce food this country needs. All this from a company claims it is “Championing a better way to do business for you and your community". Well it just goes to show what they think of the community of  Great Glen.

I personally think it is wrong that the views of local people should be walked over without at least the Government Inspector listening face to face the local residents so they could raise their concerns to the effect it would have on the local community. As for the Co-Operative I don't know how they can claim that they champion a better way to do business for the community when they don't listen to the community. Finally there is the loss of the farm land, yes it is only 30 acres, but add all these projects up and we are losing tens of thousands if not more acres of farmland year. Land we need to feed our children and their children.

Cold Bank Holiday

Yesterday has to be the coldest bank holiday Monday I can remember in August and probably the wettest too in turns of the length of time that it rained. The only good thing is that we didn't have particularly high winds as well.

This morning the wash out of yesterday was all over the front pages of the newspapers together pictures of people at the Notting Hill Carnival tying to make the best of it and smiling in the rain, but had to feel for them all dressed up to for the summer and covered in plastic raincoats. Rather than bikinis umbrellas were more the order of the day, as one paper put it. it was more like "Singing in the Rain" than a summer carnival.

Here in Rutland it just rained and rain, and even when the forecast predicted we should have a break from the rain, it rained. And the temperatures struggled to get above the low teens all day. What was worse was it was the sort of rain that you get in the Lake District that seems to go through you whatever you wear. In some areas three weeks worth of summer rain fell in one day and that is what it felt like here. 

In some parts of the country records tumbled as sub-zero temperatures were recorded in parts of Northern Ireland and Scotland. I know summer bank holidays can be rather hit or miss but this was the greyest one I can remember and certianly the coldest. It must have spoilt events all over the country and is claimed cost the tourist business millions. The sun didn't shine once, although apparently it was sunny in Scotland after the frost.

Who I feel sorry for are all those people that had plans for days out to the seaside or off to one of the many outdoor events that were organised around the country. All those people and the event organisers would have been hoping the weather forecasters had got it wrong, but they didn't. The good news is that after to day, at least locally things start getting back to normal and although it might not be a heatwave it will be warm than it has been of late.

Thank You

Just wanted to say a quick thank you to all of you that have come back to the blog after so long and those that have found it for the first time. It has been a record month for the year so far. In fact the blog hasn't had this many hits in a month since October last year.

From here on in the rate of posting entries is likely to likely to diminish some what as my work takes over my free time. It won't happen straight away but it will happen. I'm hoping to think up some regular post that will keep the blog going and then there will be the odd family related post I'm sure and stuff I find topical on the news. Just don't expect two posts a day when you will be lucky to see two a week, in say two or three weeks time.

It been great coming back to the blog again and I have enjoyed up dating the year with entries I started and never completed and writing new entries too. I never did get to finish updating the missing pictures from 2010, but that I will continue to do as time allows. Anyone that knows me will know that updating is emotional too, in so many different ways.

So anyway who every you are I thank you for taking you time to read the blog and some of my thoughts on life and on my family too who I love so much, for the people that are special to me will always be special to me at least. Just wish I had more time to post blog entries.

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

Well it is a typical Bank Holiday Monday and the rain is falling as well as the temperatures. A good time to stick on a video for the kids to watch and put your feet up for a good book, and given the weather you are going to need a funny one. So don't panic, help is at hand. Why not travel the lengths and breath of the Galaxy and laugh along the way with Douglas Adams book "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy".

The story revolves around Arthur Dent and rather average and boring human who never had anything interesting happen to him, that was until  seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic highway he is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect. Who turns out to be a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor after getting stuck on Earth. Now you would have thought that things would quieten down for Aurthur, but the ship he and Ford are rescued by is one of the Vogon Constructor Fleet, and the of which captain threatens to throw him and his companion off the ship unless they tell him how good his poetry is. 

And so Arthur and his friends, Ford, Zaphod, Trillian and Marvin start on a journey around the galaxy with a copy of the The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and a towel, because it is always important to know where your towel is. Ask anyone that could find there towel when getting out the shower and they would agree. Along the way they find out the reason for the destruction of the Earth and start the search to find the ultimate question to life, the universe and everything. After all we know the answer is 42 don't we. It is a story that sees them going to the end of time itself, at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, and a funny and a good read it is too.

And if you one of these people that can't be bothered to read a good book there are other ways of accessing the story including a computer game based on the book, that you can play on line on the BBC website, a BBC radio version of the book, a TV serial and of course a film. Personally I would recommend the radio version of the story, but then I have always had a soft spot for radio. It just lets you still use your imagination rather than relying on someone else's to paint the pictures to the words. 

So that my recommendation of something to do on a dull wet and cold summer bank holiday Monday, better still rather than sit at home take your book to the pub for a read. Whatever you do have a great day off and don't panic.

Legend Lord Richard Attenborough Dies

It sad say we have lost another great this year the legend that is Actor and Director, Leicester born, Lord Richard Attenborough, aged 90. Over the course of a 60 year career he notched up some 74 film acting credits and directed 12 film, in addition to this he appeared on stage and co-starred, together with his wife Sheila Sim, in the original West End production of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap in 1952, which is still running today at the St.Martins Theatre in London. 

He wasn't just an actor he was President of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), President of the Muscular Dystrophy and  patron of the United World Colleges movement campaign. In addition to this he was a life long advocate of education that does not judge upon colour, race, creed or religion. In Business he had various interests and he was chairman of Capital Radio, deputy chairman of Channel 4, Chairman of the British Film Instutue and more. He worked tirelessly for charity and locally he founded the Richard Attenborough Centre for Disability and the Arts at the University of Leicester.

Despite all he did outside the cinema it will there that many people will remember from and the many roles he played in films like  Jurassic Park, 10 Rillington Place,  Flight of the Phoenix, The Great Escape, Brighton Rock and many more. The list fims just being to great to put in one short blog post. And then there was his directing work which started when he directed oh what a lovely war and hit its heights with the film Gandhi in 1983 which won Academy Awards for best director and best film. Awards which he added to his collection that he won over the years.
  

  Jurassic Park (1993)

10 Rillington Place (1971) 

 Flight of the Phoenix (1965)

The Great Escape (1963)

 Brighton Rock (1947)

It is a sad loss for the world, but one that had to come, he had been in poor health for a number of years and lived in a nursing home with his wife, of some 69 years, after they sold their home 2 years ago. It a sad loss for use all and my heart goes out to his family who have by all accounts lost a warm and lovely man. May his films be watched for years to come and his legacy be enjoyed by as much in the future as they have been in the past.

World Broadcasting

Not too many years ago nearly every developed country around the world were active in broadcasting their message and culture around the world. This not only allowed them to keep people from their country informed while they were overseas but it also gave those countries a way of promoting their country and its way of life to the world. And although it was sometimes used by some countries as propaganda over the years it did allow the listeners to gain insight into those countries.   

 

Another thing that broadcasting allowed to the free counties of this world was to spread the news in an impartial way as they could, something your own BBC was famous for around the world. People in counties where the press was censored would tune into the BBC to listen to the news about their part of the world. It gave them another view of stories that were twisted or left untold and gave them the reason to make up their own mines. Work that the BBC is finding harder and harder to do today with cut after cut to its world broadcasting budget.

The BBC is not the only broadcaster that has suffered from cut and changed the way they deliver their message to the world. Unlike times past the short wave bands these broadcasters use to occupy have largely fallen silent. Even the greats of the past have gone and stations like Radio Moscow are no more, just broadcasting in digital using a system that hardly anyone can listen to without special radios that aren't widely available. Of course other great nations have stop broadcasting too and transmitters around Europe in particular have been mothballed and in many cases scrapped altogether.

In many cases the stations still exist and the majority of counties still have world broadcasting programmes, but these are now transmitted over the internet or by satellite, or just left to websites to relay the message in text. That sounds fine until you think in times and areas of conflict that the internet might not available to the many and that they might not be the power to use satellite equipment. For people in situations like that only the old short wave broadcasting methods might be the best way of get news to the people that is unbiased and reliable. Also in this time of strain with Russia it import the news they get is fair, because that doesn't seem to be happening at home.

Culturally it is a bad thing too as it makes other cultures less fearful of your own while giving you insight into the cultures of others. You just have to look situation the world faces today with extremists able to preach and radicalise young people with lies because the truth isn't out there for everyone to hear. And other cultural elements are important too such as music, arts, literature, history and the heritage of nations too. It gives you an insight in to a nation and its people and you hear it first hand.    

We will never go back to the old days of crowded short wave bands of the past in Europe, but in another parts of the world it is still going strong, but with maybe less hours of broadcasting by any one broadcaster than ever before. In the end time will see these off and old radio bands of the past will fall silent and those old short wave radios will become a curiosity of the past.

A Cruise on the SS Uganda

Emily and Catherine are off to Italy for a few days to enjoy some sun before the new school year starts again. This reminded me of my own travels when I was Emily's age where I spent two weeks sailing around the Mediterranean in the SS Uganda, a P&O liner of  and last of her kind to sail of the old British-India Steam Navigation Company. 

The SS Uganda was part cruise ship and part School ship. The front part of the ship was equipped for paying cruise passengers who had all there own amenities, including games rooms, dinner rooms, saloons, swimming pools and elegant decor which would have graced any ship in the P&O line of it's day. Accommodation was by all accounts excellent. At the rear of the ship things were more practical in the school part of the ship. We sleep in dormitories that had been converted from the cargo hold, ate in cafeteria that could seat 300 in one sitting, classrooms, library, a 300 seater lecture theatre/cinema and a student common room. I can imagine third class travel on ships in the past was like this.

We started out early in the morning from outside the school gates with cases packed and parents waving us off on our tour. Our destination was Gatwick Airport and a flight on a old Dan Air London De Havilland Comet 4C to Malta's only airport. Although the aircraft was old I remember she was very comfortable and the food was good, in fact it was the best meal I had in the following two weeks, but I won't let that spoil the story, as I didn't the trip. To be honest the old bird was far better than the plane we flew back on, but more of that later, and I can still remember the excitement as we boarded the plane.
   

We started off in Malta and with military precision we were board on the ship and the students from the previous cruise were disembarked to go back on the same aircraft that we had just arrived on it. The scale of the organisation must have been impressive with 1200 people arriving while another 1200 people were leaving ship. The bunk beds could hardly have got cold by the time we got down to the dorms with our cases. We spent the night in harbour and in the morning we were let lose on the island with our teachers and had time to look around the town of Valletta, as the ship took on supplies and fuel, before sailing out into the Mediterranean in the evening for the start of our first part of our voyage.
 

We sailed from Malta to Egypt, this took several days and during that time voyage we encountered stormy weather which is rather unusual in the Mediterranean and I remember quiet a few people feeling sea sick, but we arrived in Alexandria mid afternoon and it was dull and overcast and soon we were let out loss on the souvenir sellers. It was quiet good battering with them to get something to take home. In the evening there was a film in the cinema or if you didn't fancy that their always a disco in the common room to keep you amused.

The next the morning  we all got up early and a fleet of coaches awaited use for the drive to Cairo, which in the slow coaches seemed to take about 3 hours. Once there we were shown around the Pyramids and Great Sphinx of Giza. Some people had a camel ride but we had been carefully warned about not paying for such rides until we were back on the ground, apparently the camel guides had a habit of charging you twice if you paid when you got on the beasts.  From their it was off to the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Cairo to look at the collection of Ancient Egyptian artefacts compete with a guided tour. It was there we noticed there were no Egyptians in the museum except for the tour guides, and it turned out this was for security reasons as we passed the Israeli prime minsters wife doing the same tour as us. It was an amazing place.

On leaving Cario it started to rain hard, something it does just a couple of times a year. It was quite a sight as the roads simply turning in to dirty rivers as the rain mixed with the sand and the mud. In fact Cairo was quite interesting in itself, with buildings built upon buildings some which seemed perched on the top of the tallest building and mad out nothing more than what seemed to be mud. Amongst you could see building the reflected the cities former glory and riches which shone like golden beacons in the sun, when it was shining. When we arrived back at the ship it was a rush to get on board and sail again overnight to our next destination.

From Egypt we went to Israel for our visit to the holy land. Apparently we were one of the first ships that docked in Egypt and was then allowed to dock in Israel in quiet a few years because of tensions in the region that were just starting to ease. It was as we were waking that we pulled it along side the harbour in Haifa and after breakfast with disembarked into another fleet of coaches for a trip to the holy land.

Our first stop was in Bethlehem there we visited the church of Church of the Nativity. The Church was built over the cave which is believed to have been the birth place Jesus of Nazareth. The thing that strikes you as you enter the church is the size of the door and in order to get inside you have to stoop. The reason we were told where to stop people taking larger animals into the church. After looking around the the church we were taken in small groups into the Grotto of the Nativity to see the birth place of Christ which was marked by a 14-pointed silver star, before leaving the church and boarding the coaches again.

Our next destination was Jerusalem and there we visited the The Garden Tomb which is considered by many to be the burial place of Jesus of Nazareth, which at the time of his death would have just been outside the old city walls. And after a brief stay we were taken to city itself to see the Dome of Rock, the Wailing Wall and to visit the markets and bazaars in the city. I remember at the time being particularly impressed Dome of Rock and its tiled facade, it was an amazing place. I would have loved to have seen more of the city but time was limited and we had to return back to the ship.

After leaving Israel we headed to Rhodes where we disembarked by a motor launch from the ship as the harbour wasn't big enough for us to dock. It was quite fun getting onto the tiny motor launches that bobbed up and down on the waves. Awaiting us on the shore was a fleet of coaches which took us to visit the ruins of the Temple of Apollo on the Acropolis of Rhodes with it's lovely views of the island below. The stay here was brief and soon we found ourselves free to roam around the main town on the island before boarding the ship, which sailed again as the sun was setting.

Continuing or Greek island experience we sailed to Santorini where we rode the donkeys up the winding path to the cliff top town of Thira. I can't remember actually going anywhere there except to roam around the town itself and out into the countryside around it. What I do remember was it was very beautiful and peaceful. It seemed a lovely place to live in the sun. I can imagine the only problem being that every so often a cruise ship and dumps 800 school lids on the island for the afternoon, but I'm sure we weren't that bad the day I was there.

 

Finally leaving the Greek Island we eventually arrived in Sicily, at was at hat point it felt like we were sadly coming to the end of the trip with just one port of call to go. There we visited the Ancient theatre of Taormina which it is believed was built by the Roman on account that it was built of brick. It was high up on the hillside with lovely views over Messina and to the sea beyond. Once our visit there was over we spent the rest of the day looking around Messina. Visiting the Cathedral, Sanctuary of Santa Maria del Carmelo, Church of Santa Maria degli Alemann and Fountains of Orion and Neptune. As the end of the day drew near we head back to the ship for dinner and back out to sea. 

 

Our final destination was Naples. There the ship docked and the waiting fleet of coaches whisked us for a guided tour of the impressive ruins Pompeii.It lived up to all we had been told about it before we got there in the lectures they gave on-board as we sailed. The ruins were wonderful and you could start to get a feel for what Roman life must have been like, minus the smells. It was amazing a culture so advanced decayed in the way it did when and you understood why the period that followed was called the Dark Ages after the brilliance which proceeded it.  Once finished there we had time to spend a few hours looking around Naples before heading off for the airport for the flight home.

The flight how was in a Laker McDonnell Douglas DC-10 series 10. It was the first wide bodied plane I had ever flown in and it didn't impress. Compared to the Comet it seemed flimsy to say the least. At one point the person next to me in the window seat kicked the side panel by accident and we found ourselves  looking at the inside of the pressure cabin and the cables and wires that ran down the side of the plane. As we couldn't get it back on the cabin crew had to get the flight engineer, or turned up with a rather worried face to fix the plane. I must say I was grateful to get off when we landed.

Despite the end of a lovely trip coming to an end I remember us all singing on the way back from the airport to the school. I think we were all looking forward to some home cooked food, for the one thing that sticks in my mind, other than places we visited was the smell of the galley, the horrible food and the taste of highly diluted post mix Coca-Cola that was like drinking slightly flavoured water. All the same it was a happy time and a great adventure.   

This wasn't the last time I went on SS Uganda, that happened a couple of years latter when when I sailed on her again this time around the North Sea but that is a story for another time. Hopefully Emily and Catherine will be going to Pompeii when they are in the Naples area, I have been there twice and would love to go again and I know they will love it too.