In the i last week, Chloe Westley, campaign manager at the TaxPayers' Alliance, took issue with Guy Verhofstadt's declaration that "It is through the European Union that we can live in peace and democracy". She wrote that this is:
gravely insulting to the hundreds of thousands of soldiers from across the world who fought to liberate Europe in the Second World War [and] it was the US-led transatlantic alliance - Nato - that secured the peace during the lifetime of the EU.
NATO was primarily a bulwark against Russian-dominated Communist expansion in Europe. It was needed, and is still needed, as a military deterrent. (I trust the TaxPayers would put aside their objection to paying tax in this particular instance and agree with me that we need to provide the funds to maintain NATO'S credibility.) However, the anti-Communist stance has gone too far in the past. The powers-that-were in NATO supported the Greek colonels in their far from peaceful, and certainly undemocratic, coup against a democratically-elected government. Greece was not in the European Community at the time. Nor did NATO prevent the military invasion of Cyprus (an independent nation under a power-sharing constitution) by Turkey (a NATO member).
The implication of Verhofstadt's message is that, if, in the early twentieth century, we had in Europe enjoyed tight economic and cultural bonds including a shared ethos of democracy and human rights, instead of the loose system of alliances which prevailed, the destructive Second War in Europe need not have occurred. The fascist and national socialist regimes of Italy, Hungary and Germany would not have arisen. (Maybe, without the support of Germany, Japan might not have embarked on her own military expansion, so no Pearl Harbor.)
The thousands of soldiers who slogged through Europe liberating our friends from tyranny and genocide, and who witnessed the destruction that war had brought, returned to the UK determined that "there must be a better way". They voted for great social reforms at home (no doubt contested by the ancestors of the TPA) and for greater cooperation between nations abroad. The most prominent advocates of our joining the Treaty of Rome were Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Heath, Major Denis Healey, and Captain Roy Jenkins who had all served in World War II, together with Harold Macmillan who distinguished himself in the Great War. The majority of those thousands would have swelled the two-thirds vote in favour of staying in the European Community when the first referendum was called in 1975.
Farage, Fox, Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees-Mogg and their ilk are the heirs to the appeasers of the 1930s who wanted to dissociate the UK from events on the mainland. Their allies are ultra-nationalist minority parties like the Allianz für Deutschland and the Front National, who also want to break up the European Union and whose roots are probably (certainly in the case of the FN) fascistic. The Daily Mail had it wrong. The real traitors, those who betrayed the hopes and expectations of my parents' generation, are those who would use a narrow majority in a flawed second referendum in order to bring disruption and chaos to Britain and the wider world.
Sunday, 30 September 2018
"Loved in low places and loathed in high places"
Thanks to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, I have learned of the work of the late Inez Jane Mary McCormack (article here; registration required) in Northern Ireland. She would have been 75 last Friday. What stood out for me was the contribution she made to the Belfast Agreement.
McCormack's work as a champion of a fairer society for workers, especially women, and for the human rights of all, including minorities, led to her becoming a founder member of the equal opportunities commission and the Fair Employment Agency, which were established in 1976 to outlaw for the first time discrimination in employment on grounds of religious belief or political opinion. She was also a signatory to the Seán MacBride principles for fair employment, which were based on a South African model to harness the power of American investment in Northern Ireland against any discriminatory recruitment and promotion practices.
Through her trade union activities McCormack also developed working relationships with groups on both sides of the sectarian divide and fostered reconciliation encounters across the border with the active co-operation of Mary Robinson, the president of the Irish Republic, who became a close friend. During the tortuous negotiations leading up to the Belfast agreement in 1998, she used her considerable influence to help shape its provisions on human rights and equality and then worked to ensure the agreement was welcomed and implemented within the wider trade union movement. Over the succeeding years of comparative peace, she remained unhappy that communities most affected by the conflict continued to be the most socially deprived in Northern Ireland.
That good work could be nullified if the Conservatives and the DUP have their way. Jeremy Corbyn too, with his TU roots, should be ashamed that his current policy of accepting Brexit stands to betray McCormack.
McCormack's work as a champion of a fairer society for workers, especially women, and for the human rights of all, including minorities, led to her becoming a founder member of the equal opportunities commission and the Fair Employment Agency, which were established in 1976 to outlaw for the first time discrimination in employment on grounds of religious belief or political opinion. She was also a signatory to the Seán MacBride principles for fair employment, which were based on a South African model to harness the power of American investment in Northern Ireland against any discriminatory recruitment and promotion practices.
Through her trade union activities McCormack also developed working relationships with groups on both sides of the sectarian divide and fostered reconciliation encounters across the border with the active co-operation of Mary Robinson, the president of the Irish Republic, who became a close friend. During the tortuous negotiations leading up to the Belfast agreement in 1998, she used her considerable influence to help shape its provisions on human rights and equality and then worked to ensure the agreement was welcomed and implemented within the wider trade union movement. Over the succeeding years of comparative peace, she remained unhappy that communities most affected by the conflict continued to be the most socially deprived in Northern Ireland.
That good work could be nullified if the Conservatives and the DUP have their way. Jeremy Corbyn too, with his TU roots, should be ashamed that his current policy of accepting Brexit stands to betray McCormack.
Saturday, 29 September 2018
Austerity kills two birds with one stone
I am surprised that more was not made of the news that life expectancy in the UK has plateaued when it was announced by the BBC earlier this week.
Plaid is in no doubt that the reason that more people in Wales are dying than expected is that government cuts affect already deprived areas disproportionately, and for once I am inclined to agree with them. So this disreputable Tory administration moves towards cutting the fiscal deficit two ways: directly, by not fully funding the NHS, by saving money on social security, inhibiting retired people from leading healthy lives, and then on pensions which do not need to be paid.
Plaid is in no doubt that the reason that more people in Wales are dying than expected is that government cuts affect already deprived areas disproportionately, and for once I am inclined to agree with them. So this disreputable Tory administration moves towards cutting the fiscal deficit two ways: directly, by not fully funding the NHS, by saving money on social security, inhibiting retired people from leading healthy lives, and then on pensions which do not need to be paid.
Friday, 28 September 2018
Notes from a self-taught pedant
Two opinion columns in the i newspaper on Wednesday stood out for me. One annoyed me (more of Chloe Westley when I have calmed down), the other had me cheering from the side-lines.
Simon Kelner declared that "making Scrabble easier is pointless". He recalled that he
was brought up in a tough school, Scrabble-wise. My mother was a ferociously competitive player who had no truck with new-fangled words like disco or fridge, or borderline oaths like bum or fart. If you laid down a word which she didn't know, she'd challenge you to define it, and if this didn't correspond to the dictionary definitition, she'd dock you 50 points. She would hate to be alive in a world where emoji (14 points) or yowza (20 points) or zomboid (19 points) was acceptable.
My parents were gentler, and my absorption of language came before Scrabble became popular in Britain, but both were scrupulous in their use of English. I would be pulled up for sloppy use of expressions like "I've no idea" before I went on to speculate about something. The newspapers and magazines which came into the house had high standards, in those golden days of British journalism. There was also a class teacher in Burrage Grove primary in Woolwich, who used to start every day with a spelling quiz. So I am grateful to Mr Punton as well.
Thus I learned that "bacteria" was a single noun, the plural of "bacterium" before I was forced to study Latin in the sixth form, and that "criterion" and "phenomenon" were the correct singulars of those words without having to take on Greek as well. (See previous posts for the loss of "medium" meaning an organ of communication and for "datum".)
Kelner decries the Americanisation of the official Scrabble dictionary, However, the enemy has already breached a gate. Collins, which took over from the still-British Chambers Harrap in sponsoring the official championships, is part of the former Harper and Row, an American publisher, taken over by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. So Collins dictionary is as British as The Sun or The Times.
Personally, I welcome newcomers from the rest of the English-speaking world where they fill a niche or are more colourful than the English English equivalent. Chambers, which is still hanging on by its fingernails in the crossword world (though even here Collins is making inroads) is great at including Scots (like "stooshie"), Australian and New Zealand words. It has even kept its Indian borrowings up-to-date, e.g. "chuddies". However, dragging odd usages in by the hair where there are perfectly good equivalents, simply to make Scrabble easier, is not acceptable.
Simon Kelner declared that "making Scrabble easier is pointless". He recalled that he
was brought up in a tough school, Scrabble-wise. My mother was a ferociously competitive player who had no truck with new-fangled words like disco or fridge, or borderline oaths like bum or fart. If you laid down a word which she didn't know, she'd challenge you to define it, and if this didn't correspond to the dictionary definitition, she'd dock you 50 points. She would hate to be alive in a world where emoji (14 points) or yowza (20 points) or zomboid (19 points) was acceptable.
My parents were gentler, and my absorption of language came before Scrabble became popular in Britain, but both were scrupulous in their use of English. I would be pulled up for sloppy use of expressions like "I've no idea" before I went on to speculate about something. The newspapers and magazines which came into the house had high standards, in those golden days of British journalism. There was also a class teacher in Burrage Grove primary in Woolwich, who used to start every day with a spelling quiz. So I am grateful to Mr Punton as well.
Thus I learned that "bacteria" was a single noun, the plural of "bacterium" before I was forced to study Latin in the sixth form, and that "criterion" and "phenomenon" were the correct singulars of those words without having to take on Greek as well. (See previous posts for the loss of "medium" meaning an organ of communication and for "datum".)
Kelner decries the Americanisation of the official Scrabble dictionary, However, the enemy has already breached a gate. Collins, which took over from the still-British Chambers Harrap in sponsoring the official championships, is part of the former Harper and Row, an American publisher, taken over by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. So Collins dictionary is as British as The Sun or The Times.
Personally, I welcome newcomers from the rest of the English-speaking world where they fill a niche or are more colourful than the English English equivalent. Chambers, which is still hanging on by its fingernails in the crossword world (though even here Collins is making inroads) is great at including Scots (like "stooshie"), Australian and New Zealand words. It has even kept its Indian borrowings up-to-date, e.g. "chuddies". However, dragging odd usages in by the hair where there are perfectly good equivalents, simply to make Scrabble easier, is not acceptable.
Thursday, 27 September 2018
Three times county champions - now look where we are
There was a moderately encouraging start to the season and a great win to complete it, but Glamorgan disastrously sagged in the middle of 2018. The county's difficulties were an extreme example of what is afflicting England at the national level: a lack of resolute batsmen at the top of the order. It is surely right to recruit Welsh talent, but there has been a problem of development. Partly I suspect that this has been caused by the policy decision some years ago to concentrate on the one-day game because that was where the income was seen to be. The recruitment of experience from abroad needs to be looked at too, especially as the batsmen chosen were given little time to adjust to English conditions before being called away on international duty - or in Stephen Cook's case, by the end of the season in an already dispirited side. I welcome the independent inquiry which was announced earlier this week and Hugh Morris's acceptance that nobody's position will be secure as a result.
Little blame can be attached to the bowlers and I hope the county can hold on to an effective seam attack and a commendably varied spin armoury.
Below is Graham Wagg about to bowl in yesterday's final innings of 2018 at Sophia Gardens.
Little blame can be attached to the bowlers and I hope the county can hold on to an effective seam attack and a commendably varied spin armoury.
Below is Graham Wagg about to bowl in yesterday's final innings of 2018 at Sophia Gardens.
Carl Haviland (1954-2012)
Not only celebrities give their names to railway locomotives. Carl Haviland, to whom the 50-year-old engine below is dedicated, was an HNRC technical fitter who passed away in 2012. When I snapped it in Cardiff yesterday, I thought the Direct Rail Services/Greater Anglia combination might be of interest, but three pages of search engine results show that it is already well-known. The only thing that the postings did not answer was why the former "Mount Pinatubo" was renamed. Finally putting in to ask.co.uk the question "Who was Carl Haviland died 2012?" turned up the answer.
Wednesday, 26 September 2018
European travel crunch
Christine Jardine MP sounds a warning about Brexit cutting off flights to continental Europe from the UK. Three Blokes in the Pub have already spelled out the reasons why and have revealed that the relevant institutions have already redefined air routes to by-pass the UK.
I would pick Ms Jardine up on one point, though. Victorian Britain was more liberal in respect of people's movement than the ages that followed, as an article in the Independent asserted:
The tolerance of Victorian and Edwardian Britain reveals itself in a series of ways. In the first place, amazing as it may seem today, Britain had no immigration laws for most of the 19th century[...]Britons also welcomed refugees for much of the 19th century. British high society responded positively to the arrival of wealthy and educated Italian exiles escaping the straitjacket imposed on nationalism and liberalism by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Their symbolic position as victims of Continental oppression guaranteed their positive status.
Similarly, German exiles also received a positive response when they arrived in England, as evidenced by the example of the middle class and liberal Gottfried Kinkel, although the left wing Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels did not get quite the same treatment. On the other hand, the Hungarian revolutionary leader Lajos Kossuth found himself fêted as an opponent of Habsburg tyranny in public meetings and in the press, becoming one of the greatest heroes in Victorian England until the Italian nationalist Garibaldi replaced him.
Just as importantly, while Victorian society may appear predominantly Anglo-Saxon, immigrants had an obvious impact in a variety of ways. In the first place, newcomers helped the industrialisation process, whether in the form of Irish navvies and factory workers, helping to build the infrastructure and produce the industrial goods which made Britain the first industrial nation, or prominent German entrepreneurs, whose skills helped establish the basis of many of Britain's leading firms such as Schroders, Kleinworts, Rothschilds, ICI and Tennents. At the same time, immigrants helped to create the British inner city, epitomised by the East End of London, which changed from Irish to German to Jewish between 1840 and 1914. Catering would not have developed in the way it did in Britain without migration.
During the late Victorian period continental settlers established some of the most famous restaurants in London including the Café Royal and the Ritz. At the same time Germans, Frenchmen and the Swiss staffed restaurants of all sizes throughout the country by the outbreak of the First World War, as this French concept of bourgeois dining (the restaurant) spread throughout Britain. Meanwhile, German musicians helped to transform music in Britain during the 19th century, as indicated by names such as Sir Charles Hallé, who founded the Manchester orchestra which bears his name after fleeing the 1848 revolutions, and Frederick Delius, born in Bradford in 1863 to middle class German parents. Germans also helped to staff many of the major British orchestras which would emerge during the course of the 19th century. At the same time German brass bands marched up and down the country during the late Victorian and Edwardian years, joining Italian organ grinders.
- and industry in France and Germany benefited from foreign workers. What changed was the flood of refugees fleeing anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe, which decreasing travel costs aided. The UK government reacted with the Aliens Act of 1905 (four years after the death of Victoria). The Great War of 1914-18 then virtually ended passport-free travel throughout Europe until the Schengen Agreement.
I would pick Ms Jardine up on one point, though. Victorian Britain was more liberal in respect of people's movement than the ages that followed, as an article in the Independent asserted:
The tolerance of Victorian and Edwardian Britain reveals itself in a series of ways. In the first place, amazing as it may seem today, Britain had no immigration laws for most of the 19th century[...]Britons also welcomed refugees for much of the 19th century. British high society responded positively to the arrival of wealthy and educated Italian exiles escaping the straitjacket imposed on nationalism and liberalism by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Their symbolic position as victims of Continental oppression guaranteed their positive status.
Similarly, German exiles also received a positive response when they arrived in England, as evidenced by the example of the middle class and liberal Gottfried Kinkel, although the left wing Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels did not get quite the same treatment. On the other hand, the Hungarian revolutionary leader Lajos Kossuth found himself fêted as an opponent of Habsburg tyranny in public meetings and in the press, becoming one of the greatest heroes in Victorian England until the Italian nationalist Garibaldi replaced him.
Just as importantly, while Victorian society may appear predominantly Anglo-Saxon, immigrants had an obvious impact in a variety of ways. In the first place, newcomers helped the industrialisation process, whether in the form of Irish navvies and factory workers, helping to build the infrastructure and produce the industrial goods which made Britain the first industrial nation, or prominent German entrepreneurs, whose skills helped establish the basis of many of Britain's leading firms such as Schroders, Kleinworts, Rothschilds, ICI and Tennents. At the same time, immigrants helped to create the British inner city, epitomised by the East End of London, which changed from Irish to German to Jewish between 1840 and 1914. Catering would not have developed in the way it did in Britain without migration.
During the late Victorian period continental settlers established some of the most famous restaurants in London including the Café Royal and the Ritz. At the same time Germans, Frenchmen and the Swiss staffed restaurants of all sizes throughout the country by the outbreak of the First World War, as this French concept of bourgeois dining (the restaurant) spread throughout Britain. Meanwhile, German musicians helped to transform music in Britain during the 19th century, as indicated by names such as Sir Charles Hallé, who founded the Manchester orchestra which bears his name after fleeing the 1848 revolutions, and Frederick Delius, born in Bradford in 1863 to middle class German parents. Germans also helped to staff many of the major British orchestras which would emerge during the course of the 19th century. At the same time German brass bands marched up and down the country during the late Victorian and Edwardian years, joining Italian organ grinders.
- and industry in France and Germany benefited from foreign workers. What changed was the flood of refugees fleeing anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe, which decreasing travel costs aided. The UK government reacted with the Aliens Act of 1905 (four years after the death of Victoria). The Great War of 1914-18 then virtually ended passport-free travel throughout Europe until the Schengen Agreement.
Tuesday, 25 September 2018
Welsh government does the right thing by the NHS/GIG
I cannot remember the last time government at any level honoured in full the recommendations of an independent review board. That is what has just happened in Wales (but not in England, it seems) in respect of doctors and dentists. That must remove one disincentive to new practitioners filling gaps left by retiring GPs.
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