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The Other News From England.

8 November 1999.

It didn't have to be this late, but the Pipex connection has been rather unreliable, causing the need to make several tries over severl hours to get through to the site.

This week.

Index of earlier issues - click here.

(Those who like digging about will find that there are hundreds of articles on many subjects to be found on this site.)

Old issues.

I am working again on old issues of Other News (1993) and hope soon to put a few more of them on the site.

Banks (Barclay's in this instance).

(carried over from last week's late edition)

SOMETHING HERE IS LOOKING EXTREMELY BENT. Last night I discovered that the man to whose action against Barclay's Bank I started trying to be an observer had been trying to contact me. You see, his email had suddenly gone up the spout.

The reason he had been trying to contact me was that he wanted to let me know of the next hearing in this matter in time for me to have some chance of attending and he had only been given 24 hours notice of it! With any luck, this makes the hearing null and void, but I don't know what the rules are or whether he will ever get it in front of a judge who is interested in justice. It should be interesting to follow.

Hopefully more soon.

This is the more:

THIS MATTER US HARD TO RELATE partially because the lawyers have made it as obscure and confused as possible It is very easy to believe that this has been done deliberately because there is something (£2.4million or more) to hide.

In addition to that, there is the problem that the person whose £2.4million is in question is a man of great ability, but not with the most perfect capacity to tell a story in an understandable manner - possibly not well enough for a lawyer (even one who wishes to understand it) to understand. I shall try to relate my understanding of it to you.

This man invented a process that enabled him to recycle waste oil from industrial, council and motor trade sources and turn it into fine quality fuel oil. When you do something like this there is not just the spin off that you get something for almost nothing that can be sold for a good sum, there is almost certainly the spin off that you get other products from the process that also may be sold. Thus he was onto a winner. Some of the other products from processing oil sludge I believe to be roadbuilding materials.

He arranged a substantial overdraft secured against his house to exploit the process commercially, and was doing very well financially out of it when he discovered (or deliberately found) that he could sell the business complete to a road-building firm. The road-building firm agreed a price with him, and he asked Barclay's to send all the paperwork to do with the company to them for completion of dealings - after which, of course, the £100,000 overdraft could be repaid.

The overdraft was borrowed under an agreement to which he appears to have adhered at all times, but (as far as I know) the terms of any overdraft are that the sum owing can be reclaimed at any time on demand by the bank. Two days after the road-building company had been sent the paperwork they told this man that they would not be dealing with him because they would prefer to deal with Barclays' appointed receiver! (A receiver is a person who is engaged to wind up a company that has failed, but this one hadn't). As the company was in good shape and he had not been even warned of impending receivership or asked for the repayment of the overdraft, he was somewhat mystified.

At this point the story becomes a little unclear for me, but shortly we come to the bit where Barclay's produce an agreement allegedly signed by him in a town in England at a time when he was in fact in the USA (I have seen a bent solicitor do this with a paste-up that was then photocopied, but I do not understand how Barclays would be able to produce an original document).

Whatever else, he decided that he now had them, and brought a legal action for forgery to City Of London Magistrates. The Chairman of the magistrates found the chairman of Barclay's not to be guilty, and in a very short time we come to the predictable point where we discover that the two are friends. The Chairman claims that he told the bench of his friendship and nobody objected, but I think this unlikely because our friend would by now have felt himself so thoroughly stitched up that he would have objected very thoroughly indeed. There is therefore the very strong suggestion of perjury going on here, in addition to the predictable and obvious suggestion of masonic involvement.

The matter went to appeal, and the appeal judge played around with it for a while and then decided that the City of London magistrates had committed no misdeed, had been entirely honorable, and that the chairman of Barclay's was not responsible for the forgery as it could not at present be shown that he in fact committed the forgery (especially difficult as they have now destroyed all the paperwork to do with the case!). Ah, but he condoned the forgery, our man says, but of course the judge says I can't see any point in bringing this matter up again now it has been settled, and anyway it is not illegal to condone forgery - it is only illegal to actually do it. Can't you get legal aid and use a solicitor to deal with this matter? No, he cannot. He may be on Income Support, but this is a commercial matter, and the legal aid board will not give him legal aid (according to a solicitor he sonsulted?) for a commercial matter.

OK, the judge decided, I will give them notice that they must respond to within 14 days. That will force them to appear in court and face the music. I was rather surprised at this. This put the whole matter back in front of the public, and once the public begins to understand what is going on that can change things considerably.

Next thing our man is given 24 hours notice of a hearing.

I would like to hint at a few suggestions for what is going on here, without actually being able to say for certain that what I suggest is a reality. This is partly because as much secrecy as possible prevails. Even the bits of information I have gleaned my not be entirely right, although they fit a certain psychological stereotype.

When something of this type happens and people do not like it and do not understand for certain what is going on, the first assumption is that freemasons are involved, when in fact it could be another self-interest group with a secret means of communication, criminal or otherwise. The hypothetical 'other group' I cannot tell you about, but it is very likely that to doe things that are implied by what is going on they would have modelled their system on that of freemnasons, but to some extent, and despite the secrecy, I can tell you a little about freemasons.

Freemasons began as a group of ordinary stonemasons who used to meet in a hut on site to discuss business and fix prices in secret, and became so successful that they continue to meet to this day to discuss business even though most are not freemasons at all. Exactly what they discuss is still a secret unless you are a freemason, but even then only the knowledge that applies to your 'grade' is available to you, and thus you do not know who is above you or necessarily what they do. Freemasons use secret signs that enable them to convey their message without speaking it, and as they are a 'brotherhood' they have an obligation to help each other. They are not admitted to the brotherhood unless they declare a belief in god. There are thought to be a great many freemasons in the legal profession, the police, architecture, banking, big-time contracting (like road building companies, for instance). There are freemasons at all 'levels' of society, and I was once told that a member of the British royal family is at the top of the freemason pile, but that it is handy to have more modest people, who can 'find out what's going on', influence deals, etc., or maybe telephone engineers and the like........

I also know from a conversation I once had with a freemason that Rosicrucians are a 'study group' within freemasons who study everything but are not allowed to study politics because that is reserved for freemasons.

That's freemasonry. But there is also the possibility that some other organised and secretive group could be involved in this matter.

Railtrack.

THIS SUBJECT came up once again this sunday, and a person whom we have all forgotten was remembered. The railways when they were state owned used to employ not just a driver to drive the train but a person caled a 'second man', whose job was to take his (in those days) training further than the few years he had already put in, mainly in order to be the safest and most experienced driver you could get even before he started to be in charge of the train (with a second man to assist, of course). The point about this, of course, is that the second man might have been in a position to counter whatever strange move that Paddington driver had made and thereby avoid an accident.

Strangely, in the same gathering, somebody else pointed out that the railways had never made a profit before. And so where does that get us? On the subject of ridiculous directors' salaries and perks there has always been the spurious argument that they were worth the money they got - and that will continue despite all evidence to the contrary. If the railways never made a profit, how could those directors be worth the money they got? On the other hand if they did make a profit, is there any evidence to suggest that somebody else couldn't do the job just as well or better for less money? If they could make a profit, wouldn't it be a good idea to spend the profit on safety and general maintenance before calling it a profit and then give any remainder to the shareholders?

Freemasons and the law.

See Banks above.

Southwark.

LAST WEEK I got a reply to my letter sent in April this year. It told me that the person to whom it had been forwarded had been off sick, thanked me for my patience and suggested that if I could wait a few more weeks the matter would be resolved.

I had written to tell them that a sum recorded on a computer and paid out fortnightly should be £95 instead of the £89 they were paying.

Boy, things really are motoring now! Congratulations to chief executive Belvir.

.......................................................................................................

The stuff that doesn`t often get changed now follows:

This website is one to do with monetary reform. If you are interested in economics it is worth a look. http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~bamr1

This is a site concerned with one of the most unpopular planning decisions ever made in Greater London, the Crystal Palace Complex. It is so stunningly awful that only a handful of people who do not live near it appear to approve, whilst the rest are not entirely uninclined to mention such things as payola, freemasons....you name it! The site belongs to the London Borough of Bromley, but the aggro generated by it and the destruction of amenity caused by it will be almost entirely suffered by residents of adjoining boroughs and not the people of Bromley themselves.

This is a recycling site based in London, and offering materials to anybody. The organisation is a charity seeking to link suppliers of surplus materials with users. Especially good for the more ingenious designers amongst us.

The email of the people who run the above site is cs@london-recycling.demon.co.uk. They are called Creative Supplies. Look them up for more info.

Here's an interesting education site - particularly for those who have young children and are not quite sure what to do to avoid the worst of what`s on offer in the mainstream of education.They are called www.edrev.org.

early Othernews - 1992, 93, 94.

Early Other News essays.

There were a few essays that went out with the early Other News as a freestanding item. You can read these by clicking below.

Essays.

The Soup Designer`s Handbook.

The Soup Designer`s Handbook.

London Journey - a trip from Docklands through Beckenham and back to Docklands.

Friday Woodworkers.

(Friday Woodworkers are suffering a temporary break due to some of the episodes not having been fully edited at the time of writing. It may take some timne to fix this problem.

Episode 17.

(These articles were written in 1988, and were my first attempt at writing. Some people when shown these fell about laughing, some smiled faintly - and some yawned. I thought I was going to write a technical book, but it soon became apparent that I was much more interested in the people than the technology - and that is the main reason there are no drawings - although it might be rather good to do a couple of caricatures sometime.)

Index of Friday Woodorker articles (and a means of access).

Progress is slow but we`re still moving on.

We are still redesigning The Other News From England. Noticed the change so far?

There is at least one new article this week, and articles on many subjects in earlier issues (which can be seen by clicking below).

Index of earlier issues.

Gabriele Gad on alternative therapy.

A READER COMPLAINED that it was not possible to go back more than 6 articles in Gabriele`s area. Regrettably this is because there is no index, and I have not the time to organise one yet. However, for those determined enough to find the early ones, they should be accessible by going to an early Other News and clicking through from it. This will not be fast, but I think will do the job. They started about November 1997 I think.

editor@othernews.co.uk

Cartoons and graphics.

drawings click here.

sheet music click here.

NEW AREA.

(I wish someone would make a contribution before I am forced to put in some of my own stuff here).

So new, in fact, that there is nothing there. I want to open a section of this site to be used as a kind of green reference. Ordinary folks usually know what to do in order to be green, but there are times when (a) they don`t know the technology, or (b)they are short of ideas, or (c) they would like to see what some other people think.

So the purpose of this area will be for people to describe to others how they made their own electricity, or saved a great deal of domestic water being wasted, or captured the methane gas from their cesspit, designed their solar bicycle with regenerative braking and portable overnight windcharger, caused plants to grow in a desert, made a solar water pump, etc.

A site for forward-looking people, in fact.

It may be very difficult to edit, but I would like a few articles and tips that are concise, easily understood and ecologically useful. Authors will be named if they so wish. These will be left on the site, and gradually as the number of articles builds up hopefully somebody will construct an index. I won`t volunteer myself, as I have yet to make a subject index for the whole Other News site.

Consumers.

ABBEY NATIONAL PLC.

One week carried an article that might be of interest to anybody thinking of taking out an Abbey National mortgage - or those who already have one.

Interestingly, one of the London papers described them as being "among the greediest".

There will soon be a new twist to this story, but I am not sure what it will be until it happens. They are trying to make it as difficult as possible instead of as easy as possible to resolve the present dispute.

LEXMARK 3200 PRINTER.

(see several weeks back).

This Lexmark business gets worse. I refilled the black cartridge with an ordinary cartridge refilling outfit and it won`t print despite telling me that the cartridge is full and that it is printing.

In an earlier issue I told you about my feelings regarding Tempo retailers and the Lexmark 3200 printer I bought from them. I have now found out another thing about it.

The Lexmark 3200 printer I got from Tempo must surely be the most uneconomical printer I could possibly have bought. The black cartridge only does about 250 pages of ordinary type - for £28! That makes each sheet cost 11.2 pence plus the cost of the paper and probably another 11.2 pence more if any colour is used! - ABOUT 22.4 PENCE A SHEET! Nearly a pound for every four sheets!

I wouldn`t recommend you to buy it - but also look at my earlier article for an idea of Tempo`s service.

Wanted

A person to help make up a subject index for the growing numbers of articles on The Other News From England. Email editor@othernews.co.uk

8- or more-track tape recorder. email pcj@gn.apc.org

Also want good working VW or Volvo 7 series 2.4litre turbodiesel engine. This is the type that goes in an LT van or a Volvo 740TD. email pcj@gn.apc.org

£2,000,000 at 0% interest would quite good too, although I would probably waste quite a lot of it employing musicians to do the great work.

All material on this site is copyright. Contact me if you want to use it. I am quite flexible. Educational non-profit use is free - but ask for permission and print an acknowledgement. If you can`t think what to print, put:

From The Other News From England. http://www.othernews.co.uk

editor@othernews.co.uk

That`s all this week folks