Thanks to Vic Minnett and Shannen Headley BBC CWR West Midlands for the Headline. ( the opinions expressed in this therapeutic article are purely my own misguided or otherwise thoughts)
My feelings on this headline were initially , oh not The Reform UK Party. As the only member of the Reform Party( he might be the leader for all I know) is Nigel Farage.
I associate Mr Farage with being irresponsible in the EU Parliament while he was an MEP. Guffawing and neigh saying anything good about what other MEP’s were trying to do. At the same time creaming off the expense system and taking an MEP’s salary at the same time as decrying the EC as an institution .
Is Nigel Farage a journalist ?Have his journalist and media friends given him so much exposure that we think him far more influential than he is?
And now I know another Reform Party member, George Finch, who is the Council Leader for Warwickshire County Council at 19 years old. As Head of the Council he wrote a letter to Bridget Philipson, the current government’s Education Secretary, his request was for the Council to be given permission to reform the “walking distances” between home and school in order to reduce the money spent on transporting the 10,000 children who currently qualify for transport aid to get them to school in the County.
Unfortunately, Bridget after reviewing the letter accused Reform of dragging children ” back to the Victorian Era”.
Please stick to the facts Bridget and don’t flounce off about what you may see as the bigger picture of Reform UK or UK Reform , whatever they are called, potentially being a party that would like Orphaned Children in Workhouses and fed on gruel and made to pick oakum. While their more fortunate peers will sit quietly in class having walked to school through bad weather , with leaky shoes and a summer coat.
As Head of the Council, George Finch wants to understand if there are better ways to organise school transport. They offer subsidised transport to 10,000 children , George thinks the figure should be closer to 2500. Unless someone looks at the facts no one can really be sure.
Unfortunately accusing a fellow Politician of living in the Victorian Era, particularly a 19 year old elected Head of Warwickshire Council, seems Victorian and a bit Old School Mam’ ish to me. Stick to the facts Bridget.
Thank you to the Online BBC News Team for this inspiring gem.
This story reminded me of a tragic(for architectural and historical reasons purely) of our local Council’s argument with a developer who bought a beautiful building called ” The Mechanics Institute” probably over thirty years ago for a lowly sum and then proceeded ,despite the building being “listed” ,to let it deteriorate and go to ruin. I don’t think the developer ever had the money to ” turn the building into a hotel” and actually saw the value of the land for house building once the building was in such a state it had to be demolished.
So this story about a developer using a small union jack on the side of a building he owned to advertise a “Fly the Flag Campaign” on a former Council building which presumably the developer had bought from the Council struck a chord.
The developer was outraged when the Council asked him to remove the said Union Jack Flag .He responded by putting a Union Jack that completely covered the frontage of the five story building and the Council have said that they will not take any further action as the flag ” does not breach any planning rules”, and actually the Council feel that it can be considered as part of the National Remembrance period to remember our War Dead. Yes, the Union Jack represents the whole of the United Kingdom (or does it? * see below) and does seem an appropriate way to remember those that have died, and I’m sure the Council did not intend not to include Wales.
They will however pursue the developer for advertising a “Fly the Flag “”Website address on the building as this is deemed an unauthorised advertisement.
I can’t imagine if there are any tenants in the building how they will see out of it? Perhaps that is what the developer is upset about, he is not making any money out of the building and indeed it is costing him money. Why not use it to advertise his cause of ” Fly the Flag”. Has he got shares in British Airways?
For those of us who feel that flags are dangerous, I would say no. Flags are open to interpretation and anyone stupid enough in medieval times to run in front of load of marauders waving one, well they became part of history, respected perhaps , but not survivors. Unlike those who followed behind and picked up the pieces, tended the wounded and learned to live in Peace with each other . Flags are icons but they do not solve anything.
I like the Union Jack and the Cornish Flag, St David’s Flag (Gold and Black) I’ve always had a penchant for the St Andrews Cross and as I’m Irish the St Patrick’s Cross. * Apologies to Wales who aren’t included in the Union Jack , because when it was devised, Wales was regarded as part of England. Hence there is no Gold or Black in the Union Jack. Sounds like a recipe for a contentious , alcohol fuelled pub brawl.
So I won’t be joining “Fly the Flag Campaign” , not because I don’t like flags, they are colourful Icons, but in truth their origin’s can be contentious.
This is a fictional story not a commentary on what is actually happening at the BBC. A purely fictional story from my imagination, inspired by Primo Levi’s book The Periodic Table, which touches on how, he, as an Italian Chemist looking for work after the war had to deal with people who he had known while working at a big rubber plant next to Auschwitz. Although a well qualified chemist , he was in fact just another slave worker because of his Jewish religion. One of his bosses, “Mueller”, he came across years later while working as a free man in an Italian factory as an Industrial Chemist.
It fascinates me that the survivors were not only those who were prisoners in the death camps , but also those who played a role in managing businesses attached to the camp in an effort to support the Economy that the Nazi’s so heavily relied on. Where are those people today and have they forgotten what was taken away from them?
As Primo Levi outlined, his protagonist sought some sort of forgiveness which Levi felt he could not give. I on the other hand believe that there are some who think that their actions during the war were justified and those who would never see them as wrong or against humanity.
Well those people still exist and perhaps a great Institution like the BBC is one of their targets. After all the BBC did a lot of damage to the German War Effort , it’s independence and World Service were examples to everyone… and that is where my story begins.
Carbon survives and is part and parcel of our World. No matter what happens.
Maximillian pushed back in his office chai and stretched his long legs under his desk. He smiled as he remembered his Great Grandfather’s soliloquies on “George Orwell”, calling them soliloquies perhaps was too kind or perhaps a stylish remnant of Max’s penchant for flowery language which he had on what he regarded as false pretences(what nonsense English Poetry was) achieved his double first in English Literature at Cambridge.
English Literature indeed, once you knew German, proper German, every other language was der unsinn or garbage and easily mastered if you put your mind to it which of course Max had. His English accent was perfect and no one but his close circle ever heard him speak German.
His Great Grandfather’s speeches were indeed rants, just like his progenitor Adolf Hitler and in the care home that he eventually landed up in England, he would rant on endlessly about “George”, the Socialist, that Communist Bugger. All his Great Grandpa’s care staff were from the Phillipines and hadn’t got a clue what he was talking about. They saw him as an acerbic old grouchy man, harmless and quite lost in his own World, but Maximillian had known what his Great Grandpa was talking about and he totally agreed with him.
His Gramp Pa had gone into hiding after World War two, he had lost everything. He like thousands of others was a refugee, wandering the streets of Berlin, looking for his wife and children.
Unfortunately his house , his old life all gone Kapuut. After finding out his wife and children had died in one of the allied bombing raids , he managed to get to West Berlin before East Berlin was cut off. He was helped by some Nazi colleagues who were able to provide him with false papers, a false identity and a method of escape. He was indeed a wanted man as many who had anything to do with the “death camps” were.
With his new identity he blended into his new life.Working his way gradually across Europe as a travelling salesman.His penchant for languages stood him in good stead and he thought it genius that his false identity included a reference to Jewish ancestry.It had got him out of many a pickle as people looked at him in horror and if needed he would refer to a death camp and those he had lost in them .He was a good actor too.
Why he hated George Orwell so much, Max could never quite grasp, until when Max joined the BBC in the late 1990’s as fresh undergraduate, direct from University, full of ideas and on a fast track to be a producer , that perhaps he understood what had gone on as he had access to BBC archives .
Orwell worked for the BBC from 1941 to 1943, and during those years the Reich’s war had flourished, it certainly looked on the cards for a big change to happen to the World and for the Reich and it’s belief in it’s own destiny to be fulfilled. The German Army were largely in control of Europe, they were attacking the Russians and their allies. The Rest of the World too was beginning to see the benefits of authoritarian regimes , Japan was a strong ally and the Americans were keen to keep out of the War.
So what did Orwell do, living in drab London, under war conditions and doing a job as a journalist for the BBC which as an Institution he was largely unimpressed with. He stuck to the truth and he learned how to communicate succinctly and meaningfully with people who needed to hear the truth. He questioned authority and reported facts on the BBC’s World Broadcasting Stage which reached many that were living under authoritarian regimes or in conditions of extreme danger and at the same time gathered his ideas to write a book which would become “1984.”
This was why Max hated him and that was why Max had worked hard at the BBC to ruin it’s ethical stand and to ensure that the truth was a version of what Max and people like him wanted people to know. However, Max knew he had to be clever and he had helped with the process that lead to Orwell’s statue being placed outside the new building that became Broadcasting House. It appeased the BBC “socialists” and was part of his strategy in achieving Board Status at the BBC. Once on the Board of Governors , anything was possible.
(to be continued)
Thank you for reading and may your omnipotent being go with you. 🙏
” A computer is a device that processes inputs to product outputs. By this definition the brain is a computer because it takes in information and produces outputs.” Quote from Googling The Internet.
The brain takes information and transforms it into something else. So my first computer was my brain and an amazing tool it was and I like to think still is.
However , one figure, stands out in the history of the Computer and she was born in the midst of the hedonism of George the Third ‘s reign she would become a renowned mathematician and the first person to see the potential of a machine converting raw data to something other than it’s component parts ie. not simply a machine for calculation, but a much broader canvas. That person was Ada Lovelace, the only legitimate child of Lord Byron.
Ada Lovelace’s clear concise thinking lead us to the concept of the computer as a clever machine. Dear,Dear Ada was a mathematical genius and was able to see the potential in Babbage’s Analytical Engine and took her place in history as a “Wicked Mathematician.”, but also someone who encouraged others. Not dare I say it someone who wanted to dominate others.
A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then, some of which would be best assigned to a watery grave. Computing has been turned into a megalomaniac , male dominated globally polluting market place reserved for those with big budgets and even bigger egos.
Let’s face it , we have access to amazing information and we can choose to use it for good or for bad and that is what I reckon Ada Lovelace envisaged.
We have lost our way, just as a child’s brain develops and goes from being open minded and questioning to trying to satisfy the demands of the modern world and with that it’s megalomaniac , egotistical entrepreneurs whose goals just aren’t actually clear other than to dominate people, the market or perhaps the World, under the guise of Philanthropy.
Ada knew a fake when she saw it, and in honour of her, although by no means a brilliant thinker, I intend to be a free thinker and my brain , my first computer plays a part in that.
If I lose it , it’s OK , there are plenty more independent , quality thinkers out there and they will always be there, and able to use technology for the good of all. Let Ada be your inspiration.
Nowadays a Car that functions and is not too costly to run is what most people aspire to and why not?
They have become a necessary accessory to modern day life with suburbs and retail parks and leisure time to spend them in. Not to mention the dreaded school run if darlings Johnny and Jacinta didn’t get into their first choice of school and the New House Purchase fell through before the start of the new term. The journey to school is now a twenty minute car ride and not a twenty minute walk. Let’s face it the promise of Public Transport, is just that , a promise.
Thus some worship the Car, but most see it as something, dare I say it, is a necessary evil.
Some see the Car as the Devil Incarnate, and impose sitting in queues on it’s hapless inhabitants.
So My Favourite Automobile is quite a touchy subject for some.
However ,my Cars have always had names, sometimes just based on their brand name. So we have had Mini, Panda, Lil’ Audi , Van and currently Fred. They were always favourites as they always worked and always got me out of trouble. I always talked to them and in truth they had manuals written by humans who had rules and regulations in mind that meant explaining how to do something was an encyclopaedic experience. I much preferred just fiddling and I’m pleased to say that all my Cars were most helpful and never complained.
Thankfully the gear stick pattern has always been the same although light switches were always a bit of a challenge.
They were all my Favourites as they were part and parcel of my life. I won’t mention my experience with Company Cars as it was a shame , they never felt like mine and in truth I couldn’t connect with them and just like a hire car I suppose they were just there to be used.
In my later years , I probably won’t be able to afford a car, but I will look back with fondness to all my cars.
thenotsomightyom 