TALE OF TWO CITIES

2008 Beijing “The Olympic Games have been used as a justification to speed up housing rights violations that already existed and to weaken people’s ability to fight for their human rights.” – Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions.

2012 London Tenants in east London are being evicted from their homes as landlords attempt to cash in on the Olympics. Housing charity Shelter says it has seen more evidence of landlords acting unscrupulously and evicting people illegally. One estate agent said properties typically rented for £350 per week were being marketed for £6,000 per week.

Where are all the voluble protesting organisations from 2008? Oh I forget – it’s only OK for capitalist society to rip off the poor.

PANTO FUNDRAISER FOR THREATENED CHILDREN’S HEART UNIT AT LEEDS.

Five-year-old Alex Boardman with his mum and dad, Nick Boardman and Marie Cartwright, at home in York

THE parents of a baby boy who had emergency heart surgery are staging a fundraising pantomime for the threatened hospital unit which saved his life Alex Boardman was only three-weeks-old when he  was rushed from York Hospital to Leeds General Infirmary (LGI) for vital surgery.

Alex was also suffering from a life-threatening condition known as transposition of the great arteries, causing blood to be pumped the wrong way through the heart.

He is now five-years-old, and there is little evidence of the condition which threatened Alex’s life, but parents Nick and Marie, of South Bank, York, wants to raise funds for the children’s heart  surgery department at LGI – which is threatened with closure under NHS reforms.

Mr Boardman, 38, said: “It was the midwife who came round after he wasn’t feeding very well and she noticed he was going grey around his fingernails.

“We took him to the walk-in centre in Monkgate and the doctor said we needed to go to hospital. They did tests and sent him straight to LGI.” The operation took place four days later after an  agonising wait for Alex to gain enough strength for the delicate surgical procedure.

Mr Boardman said: “My partner and I didn’t really have time to get our heads around it. Now you can’t even tell – he’s running around like a normal five-year-old.”

  Mr Boardman, a published playwright, now intends to stage a fundraising production of his own play based on the Robin Hood legend, which he last put on while living in Nottingham.

Money raised will be split between the fighting fund to help keep child heart surgery services in our region and the York-based Mia’s Memory – a group co-founded by his wife, which helps parents come to terms  with miscarriage.

“I’m just looking for people to get involved,” he said. “I need everything from actors to set builders and costume designers and even a venue.

“It’s my play so I don’t have to worry about copyright, but I would love some sponsorship too from people and businesses in York, if they can help.”

If you would like to sponsor the production or get involved in the pantomime, phone Nick or Marie  on 01904 670574.

9:25am Monday 30th April 2012 in News  By Richard Catton  richard.catton@thepress.co.uk

DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WILL HAVE THEM DO TO YOU!

A group of American “civil right activists” have kidnapped a Chinese citizen in his own country and taken him to their embassy in Beijing where they anticipate him seeking political asylum. Once again we see the arrogance of the USA in action. The more the will of the new regime in China is  questioned then history tells us the more they will act in defence of their nation. The ignorance of the consequence of this action will not help the flower of democracy to flower it may well crush it!

Not content with kidnapping torturing and imprisoning people who do not conform to that countries warped idea of justice they have now created a precedent for the invasion of another sovereign state; with the sole object of kidnapping a citizen of that state. Is it not time for the rest of the world to say enough is enough and call on Americans to stop treating the planet like the lawless 19th century wild west?

economic cycle

In the 18th century Britain was the largest economy of the western world, London was the centre of international trade and finance, the currency was convertible and so sterling became the world’s first reserve currency. The US dollar dethroned British sterling to become the world’s reserve currency in the 1920’s and by the late 19^th century, the US had become the world’s largest economy.

In less than a decade we could see the US no longer being the world’s largest economy. By then, China and India will have overtaken the US, Europe and Japan, on purchasing power parity.  Iraq’s threat to trade oil in the Euro was eradicated by invasion. Recent attacks on the value of the Euro are not coincidence, with the EU reeling from a lack of fiscal prudence its threat as a reserve currency has disappeared. According to a  recent news item:

“Gold, copper and other commodities could be paid for in yuan within a decade or two, bankers and traders said on Wednesday, provided China pursues its policy of gradually freeing up trade in the currency. Already the world’s biggest consumer of commodities such as industrial metals and oil, China’s economy is growing more than three times faster than most developed countries. Chinese customers and end-consumers such as refiners and fabricators now typically pay for such imports with dollars, but bankers at a Financial Times commodities conference in Switzerland think that will change, possibly quite rapidly. They expect the yuan, also known as the renminbi, to be used increasingly to settle contracts into China and eventually as the basis for commodities trading, at least in Asia. Edward George, a specialist in soft commodities at Ecobank, which specialises in African investments, said the yuan would continue to be held back as a currency of choice until it could move freely on international markets. The yuan is not convertible for purely financial purposes unrelated to trade and investment. ‘But if the Chinese government wants to do a cobalt deal in return for services, they will use renminbi,’ he said.

‘Trade in renminbi has been expanding faster than anyone anticipated,’ said Harris Antoniou, the global head for energy, commodities and transportation at Dutch bank ABN AMRO . “Long term, in say 10-20 years, it’s going to have a real presence.’ HSBC’s Lambert agreed that China’s role as the world’s biggest commodities importer meant the yuan would be used increasingly as a settlement currency. The Financial Times reported last week that the London Metal Exchange was considering offering traders the chance to settle its contracts in renminbi. ‘Definitely you will see the renminbi become more and more important for all types of trade,’ Lambert said. ‘If you compare the situation now with two years ago, there has been huge growth and development. It is growing far faster than anyone believed. ‘ ” [Lausanne, Switzerland (Reuters) - (Additional reporting by Alan Wheatley; Editing by Ruth Pitchford]

The Chinese hold almost a thousand billion dollars of US Treasury securities.  They are the largest creditor nation in the world while the US is the largest debtor nation. Just as British indebtedness to the USA toppled its powerbase so it appears an economic cycle has all but turned full circle.

 

However, to attain the position as the world’s reserve currency of choice, China has to make the Yuan fully convertible, remove restrictions on foreign capital entering and leaving the country and accelerate financial reforms. It will be interesting to see if the new regime in Beijing will continue its predecessor’s economic policies and is not derailed from economic prosperity by outside malevolent influences.

St George’s Day

 

St.George was probably made well known in England by Arculpus and Adamnan in the early eighth century. The Acts of St George, which recounted his visits to Caerleon and Glastonbury while on service in England, were translated into Anglo Saxon. Among churches dedicated to St George was one at Doncaster in 1061. George was adopted as the patron saint of soldiers after he was said to have appeared to the Crusader army at the Battle of Antioch in 1098. Many similar stories were transmitted to the West by Crusaders who had heard them from Byzantine troops, and were circulated further by the troubadours. When Richard 1 was campaigning in Palestine in 1191-92 he put the army under the protection of St George. Because of his widespread following, particularly in the Near East, and the many miracles attributed to him, George became universally recognized as a saint sometime after 900. Originally, veneration as a saint was authorized by local bishops but, after a number of scandals, the Popes began in the twelfth century to take control of the procedure and to systematize it. A lesser holiday in honour of St George, to be kept on 23 April, was declared by the Synod of Oxford in 1222; and St George had become acknowledged as Patron Saint of England by the end of the fourteenth century. In 1415, the year of Agincourt, Archbishop Chichele raised St George’s Day to a great feast and ordered it to be observed like Christmas Day. In 1778 the holiday reverted to a simple day of devotion for English Catholics. The banner of St George, the red cross of a martyr on a white background, was adopted for the uniform of English soldiers possibly in the reign of Richard 1, and later became the flag of England and the White Ensign of the Royal Navy. In a seal of Lyme Regis dating from 1284 a ship is depicted bearing a flag with a cross on a plain background. The fame of St George throughout Europe was greatly increased by the publication of the Legenda Sanctorum by James of Voragine in 1265.  It was this book which popularised the legend of George and the Dragon. The legend of St George and the dragon took on a new lease of life during the Counter Reformation. The discoveries in Africa, India and the Americas, in areas which maps had previously shown as populated by dragons, presented vast new fields for Church missionary endeavour, and St George was once again invoked as an example of danger faced and overcome for the good of the Church. Meanwhile, the author, John Bunyan (1628-88), recalled the story of George and the Dragon in the account of the fight between Christian and Apollyon in Pilgrim’s Progress (1679 and 1684).

The legend may have been particularly well received in England because of a similar legend in Anglo-Saxon literature. St George became a stock figure in the secular miracle plays derived from pagan sources which continued to be performed at the beginning of spring. The origin of the legend remains obscure. It is first recorded in the late sixth century and may have been an allegory of the persecution of Diocletian, who was sometimes referred to as ‘the dragon’ in ancient texts. The story appears be a christianised version of the Greek legend of Perseus, who was said to have rescued the virgin Andromeda from a sea monster at Arsuf or Jaffa, near Lydda ,where the cult of St George grew up around the site of his supposed tomb.  In 1348, George was adopted by Edward III as principal Patron of his new order of chivalry, the Knights of the Garter. Some believe that the Order took its name from a pendant badge or jewel traditionally shown in depictions of Saint George. The insignia of the Order include a Collar and Badge Appendant, known as the George. The badge is of gold and presents a richly enamelled representation of St George on horseback slaying the dragon. A second medal, the Lesser George, also depicting George and the dragon, is worn attached to the Sash. The objective of the Order was probably to focus the efforts of England on further Crusades to reconquer the Holy Land. The earliest records of the Order of the Garter were destroyed by fire, but it is believed that either in 1348 or in 1344 Edward proclaimed St George Patron Saint of England. Although the cult of St George was suppressed in England at the Reformation, St George’s Chapel, Windsor, completed in stages from 1483 to 1528, has remained the official seat of the Order, where its chapters assemble. The Monarch and the Prince of Wales are always members, together with 24 others and 26 Knights or Ladies Companion.

  In more modern times, St George was chosen by Baden-Powell, its founder, to be patron of the Scouting Movement, and on St George’s Day, scouts are bidden to remember their Promise and the Scout Law. Baden-Powell recounted in Scouting for Boys that the Knights of the Round Table ‘had as their patron saint St George because he was the only one of all the saints who was a horseman. He is the patron saint of cavalry, from which the word chivalry is derived’. In 1940, when the civilian population of Britain was subjected to mass bombing by the Luftwaffe, King George V1 instituted the George Cross for ‘acts of the greatest heroism or of the most conspicuous courage in circumstances of extreme danger’. The award, which is second only to the Victoria Cross, the highest military decoration, is usually given to civilians and can be given posthumously. The award consists of a silver cross. On one side is depicted St George slaying the dragon, with the inscription,’For Gallantry’; on the other appear the name of the holder and the date of the award. For lesser, but still outstanding acts of courage, the King created the George Medal. This also is a silver cross, with on one side the reigning monarch and on the other St George slaying the dragon. The island of Malta was awarded the George Cross for its heroism in resisting attack during World War 11.

St George continues to be venerated in the Church of England, by the Orthodox churches and by the Churches of the Near East and Ethiopia. The supposed tomb of St George can still be seen at Lod, south-east of Tel-Aviv; and a convent in Cairo preserves personal objects which are believed to have belonged to George. St George is still venerated in a large number of places, by followers of particular occupations and sufferers from certain diseases. George is the patron saint of Aragon, Catalonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Palestine, Portugal, Germany and Greece; and of Moscow, Istanbul, Genoa and Venice (second only to St Mark). He is patron of soldiers, cavalry and chivalry; of farmers and field workers, Boy Scouts and butchers; of horses, riders and saddlers; and of sufferers from leprosy, plague and syphilis.

All down the centuries, one peculiarity of the English people, which has cost them dear. We have always thrown away after a victory the greater part of the advantages we had gained in the struggle. The worst difficulties from which we suffer do not come from without. They come from within. They do not come from the cottages of the wage earners; they come from a peculiar type of brainy people, always found in our country, who, if they add something to its culture, take much from its strength. Our difficulties come from the mood of unwarrantable self-abasement, into which we have been cast, by a powerful section of our own intellectuals. They come from the acceptance of defeatist doctrines by a large proportion of our politicians. But what have they to offer, but a vague internationalism, a squalid materialism, and the promise of impossible utopias? Nothing can save England if she will not save herself. If we lose faith in ourselves, in our capacity to guide and govern, if we lose our will to live, then indeed our story is told.

So today unlike in America, where citizens fly there flag with pride outside there houses, and in france where on 14th July the sound of their anthem raises the hairs on the back of your neck, St Georges Day will pass virtually unnoticed, just in case we upset our politically correct, foreign neighbours.

“There is a forgotten, nay almost forbidden word, which means more to me than any other.

That word is “ENGLAND”

Sir Winston Churchill

signing of the MAGNA CARTA 1215

EARTH HOUR SATURDAY 31.03.2012

INSURANCE

Apparently religious people donate more than twice as much money to charity as the rest of the population [£576 over the previous 12 months, compared to the £235] a recent  study by the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) found.

This should come as no surprise for while ‘charity begins at home’ some people apparently have too much, they want for nothing that money can buy. They placate a ‘social conscience.’ The working population, apart from financiers and accountants, continue to pay taxes to the government who have a final say on who receives that contribution. What I have left is mine. Probably to enable ‘carers’ to tend me in really old age.

Unlike many of my ancestors I am too old to be sent to spill my blood on foreign fields on the latest ‘Crusade’. In the countries latest census almost 75% of the population label themselves as ‘christians’ yet less than a third of that number actually attend regular services. The nation’s churches, built by wealthy Landowners and 17th century Industrialists to ensure easier access to ‘heaven’, by competing as to who was to be buried nearest the altar, are decaying and being demolished. The place of my baptism is now a redeveloped appartment block not for the poor of the community you understand but for the nouveau rich of the nearby City. A community with a higher than average rate of unemployment where crime is endemic and the only source of income.

We have politicians who continue to use sticking plaster to end the woes of a terminally stricken ship of state. The rich already have seats reserved in the lifeboats but the rest of us will be left to our own devices as were the passengers on the ‘Costa Concordia’ ! Successive officers of state have allowed a continuous degredation of the very fabric of the national ‘ship.’ The welfare of the crew was made universal instead of solely applying to those who contributed to the daily operations of the nation. 300 years of fuel reserves were ignored and the proceeds from North sea oil paid to maintain a three Million strong dole queue. ‘Charity’ from the taxpayer never paid for the destruction of hundreds of communities.  The engines of industy were destroyed in the 1980′s.  What little was left was sold off to foreign speculators in the 1990′s. Indeed were it an actual ship floating aimlessly between Europe and the America’s the Union Jack would be not be seen flying from the stern.

Giving cash to whatsoever  charity is flavour of the month will not assuage the sorrow I have for my generation not fulfilling the dreams and aspirations of the men and women who died for my right to place my thoughts here. Neither will it gain my admittance to a mythical land of milk and honey. The British Empire of Queen Victoria, with all of its imperfections, is the nearest I or my ancestors will get to ‘Utopia’. Indeed we should have learnt from the Roman’s and forseen and ‘insured’ against our demise at the hands of the barbarians.  It is time to stop giving and begin to accept the charity of other’s. Time to begin what I think it is called ‘downsizing’  before the ship of state finally sinks with the loss of ‘all hands.’