The Other News From England.

28th. August 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.

Bonnington Cafe and Bonnington Square.

There was an error in the programming last week, and Phil played his Bert Jansch/others style songs with guitar or piano. Hugh Harris visited an played a few tunes on sax.

THIS SATURDAY really should be Gabriele Gad, piano, and Hugh Harris, sax. Quiet, old-fashioned jazz and own compositions. About 8pm onwards.

Bonnington cafe is a communally owned cafe in Vauxhall, Central London. The atmosphere is somewhat Bohemian, friendly, educated, and much wine (bought from the corner shop across the road) seems to get drunk. Good quality vegetarian. Cheap. The only lighting is usually candles stuck in wine bottles, and the furniture is a collection of odds and sods that people have thrown out. The overall result is relaxed and pleasing. People tend to spend the whole evening over their meal.

The cafe gets very full, but sometimes there is a list of telephone numbers of the people who cater there in case you should wish to try to make a booking. Most Saturdays are catered by Marguerite - but not all.

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

Bank holiday week.

THIS WEEK: we are one day late, and the content of the Other News is a bit minimalist. This is due to the fact that August 28th is a bank holiday.

Joe Punter's Shakespeare.

King Henry the 6th. part 2 Act 1.

ACT 1.

SCENE 4.

London. Gloster's garden.

Enter Margery Jourdain, Hume, Southwell and Bolingbroke.

JOHN HUME:

Right you lot. The duchess expects results.

ROGER BOLINGBROKE:

That's why we have come prepared. Would her ladyship like to watch?

JOHN HUME:

Of course! She's not easily scared.

ROGER BOLINGBROKE:

I have heard her to be a pretty tough lady, but it might be as well if you would stay with her above, whilst we do our stuff below. So, please go in god's name and leave us.

(Hume exits)

Mother Jourdain, be prostrate and grovel on the earth, John Southwell read, and let's get cracking.

(Enter duchess and Hume above.)

DUCHESS GL.:

Well said my masters, and welcome to all. Get started, the sooner the better.

ROGER BOLINGBROKE:

Patience please madam. The middle of the night when all evil things are about is the best time for us to perform our work. Sit patiently, and whoever we raise we shall be able to fix within a hollowed verge (ditch? ed)

(They get into various ceremonials, make the circle, Bolingbroke or Southwell reads mystical things, and there is much thunder and lightning. Then a spirit arises.

SPIRIT:

Adsum.

(one is reminded here of that old joke (Victorian?) about the prisoner's coat of arms being 'adsum ard labor').

MARGERY JOURDAIN:

Asmath. By the eternal god, whose name and power puts fear into you, answer my questions, for you will not be allowed to leave before you do.

SPIRIT:

Ask what you will.

ROGER BOLINGBROKE (reading from a paper):

First the king. What will become of him?

SPIRIT (one must bear in mind that the spirit needs to be a bit mystical):

The duke now lives that Henry shall depose; but him outlive, and die a violent death.

(as the spirit speaks, Southwell writes the answer).

ROGER BOLINGBROKE:

What fate awaits the duke of Suffolk?

SPIRIT:

By water he will die, and take his end.

ROGER BOLINGBROKE:

What'll happen to the duke of Somerset?

SPIRIT:

He should shun castles. He'll be much safer on sandy plains than where there are castles. Please don't ask me more, for I can hardly endure it.

ROGER BOLINGBROKE:

Descend to darkness and the burning lake! False fiend, go!

(thunder and lightning. Exit spirit)

Enter the Duke of York, the duke of Buckingham, and their guard, who break in.

YORK:

Take the traitors. Beautiful lady, we watched very closely. Why, there you are. The king and commonwealth are deeply indebted for these pains. I am sure the Lord Protector will see you well and truly rewarded for this, and that is what you will deserve.

DUCHESS GL.:

My actions are not half as bad as yours towards England's king. Arrogant git, you're making accusations where there is no cause.

BUCKINGHAM:

True madam. None at all. What do you call this, then? -

(shows her papers)

Away with them! Lock em up and keep them away. Madam, you will come with us. Stafford, you take her. We'll see your trinkets coming out no doubt. Away!

(Exit above, duchess and Hume guarded, and below Southwell, Bolingbroke and people, guarded.)

YORK:

Buckingham, I think your surveillance work was excellent. A pretty plot, and well chosen as a foundation. Now let's read the devil's writ:

(he reads)

The duke now lives that Henry shall depose; but him outlive, and die a violent death.

Why, this is just................ (here some Latin)

Let's see the rest: Tell me what fate awaits the Duke of Suffolk? By water he will die, and take his end. What'll happen to the duke of Somerset? He should shun castles. He'll be much safer on sandy plains than where there are castles. Please don't ask me more, for I can hardly endure it. Come, these oracles are serious. The king is on his way to St Albans accompanied by the husband of this lovely lady, and so this news must go there too as fast as horse can carry it. The Lord Protector is in for a shock.

BUCKINGHAM:

May I carry the news, so that I may be rewarded for the task?

YORK:

By all means do. - (calling) Who's there?

(enter a servant)

Invite Salisbury and Warwick to dine with me tomorrow night. Away!

(All exit.)

More next week.

Politics.

THE TWO POLITICAL PARTIES (there are others, but these two, which are now almost identical in their behaviour and attitudes, have managed to get a monopoly of the market) have started their maneaouvring in the run up to the next general election. The campaigns are much the same, but the window-dressing is marginally different.

Pensioners may be the big issue next election, because as each election passes, more and more of the voters are pensioners. Accordingly, politicians have started vying with each other to see who can make the most impressive ambiguous statement suggesting that they will do something for pensioners if they get elected next election. Voters know that any kind of action is not very likely, because even some of the most naieve people have cottoned on in recent years to the possibility that (a) no politician ever does that which he/she has tried to suggest (without any commitment whatever) that he/she might do, and (b) that it is not particularly politicians who are in charge of the country anyway - they are just a bunch of serfs playing about with democracy.

The present party call themselves the Labour party ('New Labour'), and their name has been handed down from a party which once championed 'the working classes'. 'The working classes' of that time, of course, are now mostly pensioners, and voted for them last election in the mistaken belief that New Labour would do something to improve the lot of 'ordinary working people' - a group who cannot readily be identified, but who are identified by different people in different ways (differently according to how each individual imagines 'ordinary working people' to be) - and of course pensioners, who are allegedly the worst paid pensioners in Europe. As this has not happened, they are unlikely to believe anything else politicians say, and so the present government's only chance of winning them back would be to actually do something before the general election - something that should be difficult to reverse - like making a state pension something a person could live on.

These voters - this steadily growing vote - are the people who paid their insurance premiums (sometimes unwillingly) for not just a National Health Service but also for a decent pension in their old age. The decent pension is something they are now not getting, and they feel swindled. The government of the day is the only group who can be held responsible for the failure of this 'insurance company' to honour it's commitments, even if it was the governments before them who started the rot, and consequently in order to regain a lot of the lost votes the present government would need to actually put the matter to rights and see it working before the next election instead of just pretending to be concerned about it.

I suspect the pensioners might be old enough now to know when politicians are pulling the wool over their eyes.

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

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

Biotechnology

Click here for an email that arrived in January 2000 concerning a proposed reasoned approach to this tricky subject

This website is about accounting investigations and fiddles. If you like to look at financial scandals (both hidden and public) this might be worth a look. I have not been there myself, but the books produced by these people, although difficult to follow, cover a lot of mysterious ground.

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