The Other News From England.

24 April 2000.

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.

There are some much earlier Other News on this site. Click below.

early Othernews - 1992, 93, 94.

Bank victims

Bank victims (I believe mostly people who felt they had been bankrupted by Barclay's Bank's various malpractices which nevertheless come just within the law, by dodgy insolvency practitioners and by bank overcharges) symbolically crucified themselves on the steps of St Paul's cathedral last week. I believe part of the reason for choosing this site was because the Church is a large shareholder in several avaricious and unpleasant banks.

Below are some additional notes left over from last week's mailshot by this group. Notice that there is another crucifiction on Wednesday this week. They would like your support, and if you yourself are a victim (even if you are not, it is probably only a question of time before you become one) they might be able to help you with ideas and advice.

"MAFIA Ltd, a unique new company which organised last week's protest on behalf of victims of bank malpractice, works both commercially and sometimes pro bono to lawfully and creatively publicise and resolve disputes of all kinds. This demonstration will be repeated for the benefit of other shareholders outside the Barclays Annual General Meeting at 10.30am at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, Westminster, London SW1 on 26 April 2000. Customers, staff and other interested parties are welcome to join in this peaceful and lawful protest.

"CONTACT : BOB GAUGHT on 0778 8922808 or KEITH WHINCUP on 0181 855 2006"

The Bonnington Cafe.

Not sure who is on this week, but probably Gabriele Gad pno and Hugh Harris saxophone - quite very old-fashioned jazz with no oblugation to be in awe. Just enjoy the sound.

Bonnington Cafe, Vauxhall Grove, London SW8 UK. Near Vauxhall underground and mainline station, and many buses. Booking is difficult.

Joe Punter's Shakespeare.

King Henry the Sixth (part 1) continued.

Act 2.

SCENE 1

France in font of Orleans. Enter a sergeant of a band with two sentinels.

SERGEANT:

Take your posts and guard the walls. If you see anyone tell me.

FIRST SENTINEL:

We will, despite being uncomfortable out in the weather.

Enter Talbot, Bedford, Burgundy and forces, with ladders and drummer playing.

TALBOT:

The French inside, having noshed and drunk all day, will all by now be pissed or otherwise distracted, so it is an ideal moment to scale the castle walls.

BEDFORD:

He's a bit of a failure that Frenchman, having to rely on a girl to win his battles. She must be a witch.

BURGUNDY:

Traitors always mix with witches. Who is this Pucelle woman?

TALBOT:

Just a girl, they say.

BEDFORD:

Yet so tough!

BURGUNDY:

Hope she doesn't turn out to be a man.

TALBOT:

Don't worry. God is on our side. Let's climb the walls.

BEDFORD:

OK. You lead. We'll follow.

TALBOT:

It might be better if we entered each of us by a different route, thus maximising the chances of success and minimising the chance of each one of us getting caught.

(They're talking as though they're trying the toughest of all tasks - raiding the school larder - but it may be something less grave)

BEDFORD:

Agreed. I'll go to that corner.

TALBOT:

God save the king. I'll do or die.

SENTINEL:

Achtung! Achtung! They are trying to get in.

The French leap over the walls in their shirts - also that Bastard of Orleans, Alencon, and Reignier, who are not fully prepared.

ALENCON:

Not ready, eh?

B. O.

No. Glad we escaped.

REIGNIER:

It wouldn't have been easy to stay in bed with those alarms going off.

ALENCON:

This is a pretty desperate venture.

B. O.:

Talbot's a hellish guy.

REIGNIER:

Either he's hellish or heaven's on his side.

ALENCON:

Here comes Charlie going like a rocket.

B. O.:

Joan was his guard.

Enter Charles and Pucelle.

CHARLES:

So that's your game! You get us a little gain to create an environment in which we make a far greater loss.

PUCELLE:

Hang on, hang on. Have a bit o' patience my friend. I'll see you alright. Your guards are incompetent.

CHARLES:

Alencon, this was your fault. You didn't direct the guards properly.

ALENCON:

It wasn't me. It was the others.

B. O.:

My bit was secure.

REIGNIER:

So was mine.

CHARLES:

And since I was wandering about within either Joan's or my own area, how did they get in?

PUCELLE:

We'll never know, but if we get together our soldiers we can do them some damage.

Alarms sound. An English soldier crying(?) A Talbot! A Talbot! (If you're old enough you might remember those. They were fairly much despised within the trade, but then if you tuned them up a bit....)

The French run away, leaving their clothes behind.

SOLDIER:

Now for a bit of looting. My, the things people leave behind.

Exit.

SCENE 2

In the town of Orleans. Enter Talbot, Bedford, Burgundy, a captain and other nameless people.

BEDFORD:

It's getting light.

TALBOT:

Let's make a tomb for Salisbury here, and tell the people of Orleans what a bunch of wankers they are for killing him. By the way, has anyone seen the Dauphin, Joan or anyone else from that gang? They didn't even try to stop us.

BEDFORD:

They went and hid in the fields.

BURGUNDY:

Joan and the Dauphin are in love and ran away together. Once we have got some order around here we will go after them.

Enter a messenger.

MESSENGER:

Dear Sirs, I hope you are well. Hail! Which one's Talbot? Yours, etc.

TALBOT:

I am.

MESSENGER:

The Countess of Auvergne would love to meet you. She has heard of your many glorious deeds.

BURGUNDY:

If she has her way the whole business of wars will turn into a comic sport instead of a manly game of killing each other. You may not despise her.

(I suspect Shakespeare was a bit irrational from time to time)

TALBOT:

I'll attend to her. You lot interested in coming too?

BEDFORD:

I reckon you'll do better on your own.

TALBOT:

Well, if nobody else is coming, I'll go on my own...(whispers)....see what I mean?

CAPTAIN:

I do, my lord, and mean accordingly.

All exit.

To be continued.

Politics.

My friend tried to explain to me his thoughts on wars (just or otherwise, and how you decide whether a war is ever just), oil, economics, the 'third world', World Bank, IMF - but mainly wars and oil.

The theory he was putting forward was very simple: Nearly everywhere in the world where the west has become involved militarily or has sold arms is somewhere where there is a lot of oil, or (in the case of, say, Kosovo) where the west are trying to build a pipeline for oil. The easiest way they can lay hands on the oil is to be in control of the country itself, which in victorian times would have been done by direct force, but in these more modern times would more easily be done by seeming to rescue an oppressed nation from aggressors, or by sending in a peacekeeping force (in this latter case, and possibly in the previous one, it would probably be quite feasible to charge for the peacekeeping force in barrels of oil). All you have to do is to send in secret agents to stir up trouble and then offer to help resolve it.

The west could, of course, at any moment step into Iraq, thereby getting Iraqi oil, and possibly the only impediment to this would be the Iraqi people putting up resistance. That may be why in the West it is suggested that it would be much better if the Iraqi people threw out Saddam Hussein themselves than to wait for the west to do it. In the West, we are given a picture of a hated dictator - but is he? If he is not, the West will be waiting for a long time.

Southwark.

Phoning for the umpteenth time to see what has happened to my tenant's housing benefit (we pay for this through our national insurance stamps, so it is not just charity), I was offered the chance of using the council's complaints procedure - a Mr. Mearns. Having tried this before over another matter, I am aware that Mr. Mearns behaves in much the same way as the Bar complaints department: He seems to consider his job to be to try to find out how to get his employer (the council) off the hook.

I also concluded last time that he must be a freemason - so that really makes the whole thing completely pointless.

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

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

This website is about the destruction of countryside and agriculture. Worth a visit if you want to find out about how it is thought the British countryside will fair under the ongoing creep of the multinationals.

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

This is a website about alternative currencies.Might be worth a look to those who have realised that you don't necessarily have to have money as such to be prosperous.

This is a website for something called The Green Guide. I know nothing about it, but am hoping it is something worthy. Please let me know if it is questionable.

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).

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.

Consumers.

LEXMARK 3200 PRINTER.

In an earlier issue I told you about my feelings regarding Tempo retailers and the Lexmark 3200 printer I bought from them.

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

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

Even better if you print the date of the article.

editor@othernews.co.uk

That`s all this week folks