The Other News From England.

16th. October 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.

Alternet News.

Alternet News might appeal to some readers as a regular list of goings-on in the humnan rights/green areas of life. You can receive it by email. I have put one copy on this site so that you get an idea of what it is about and how to subscribe.

For sample Alternet email click here.

Bonnington Cafe and Bonnington Square.

This Saturday, Phil with his Bert Jansch-ish songs. No charge for the entertainment, but the hat goes round, and as seating is limited it is only fair that you should order something to eat.

Bonnington cafe is a communally owned cafe in Vauxhall, Central London. The atmosphere is somewhat Bohemian, international, friendly, educated, and much wine (bought from the corner shop across the road) gets 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, and engage in discussion with those on other tables, the caterer, the band, passers through......

The cafe gets very full, but sometimes there is a list of telephone numbers of the people who cater there fixed to the door 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, buses 185, 36, 2, 88, 322 and others. Booking is difficult.

Gabriele Gad's workshop to help you cope with computer stress.

Gabriele's computer stress course may help. I have never tried it, but doing things with Gabriele can be fun. Details of this course may be found by clicking below:

Gabriele Gad's computer stress course this October.

Joe Punter's Shakespeare.

King Henry the 6th. part 2.

ACT 3 continued.

WARWICK:

Both of you were his sworn enemies and you were foolishly given the job of looking after him! It seems hardly likely you would have feted him, and very likely you have used your opportunity to kill him.

MARGARET:

Then you also suspect these two noble men of killing him.

WARWICK:

Whoever sees a new-killed cow and the butcher standing by it would assume the same thing. Whoever finds a poacher with a pigeon in his pocket is unlikely to think it to have been killed by an eagle even if the eagle is right nearby and has blood on it's beak. The whole thing is far too suspicious.

MARGARET:

Where's the evidence. Neither of them have any implements to do the job, have you?

SUFFOLK:

I don't carry a knife, and here is my sword, rusted through not being used, which I will use to kill anyone who accuses me. Say it if you dare, Warwick.

Exit Cardinal, Somerset and others.

WARWICK:

Who's daring me if he isn't?

MARGARET:

He won't calm his insolent spirit or cease to be an arrogant control freak even if Suffolk dares him a thousand times.

WARWICK:

Madam, please be still. Every thing you say on his behalf is slander to your royal dignity.

SUFFOLK:

You bloody dimwit! You're not a Nevil but the son of some peasant who sneaked into your mother's bed.

WARWICK:

But for the fact that you are guilty of murder and that it would aquit you of a thousand shames, and that the executioner would lose his fee, and that the presence of my sovereign makes me feel it inappropriate, I would immediately force you to your knees and make you say that it was your own mother you were talking about, that you yourself are a bastard, and after that I would kill you, you bloody parasite of sleeping men.

SUFFOLK:

You will be awake whilst I shed your blood if you dare come outside with me.

WARWICK:

Right. Immediately, or I will drag you there.

Exit Warwick and Suffolk.

KING:

God will see to it that the right man wins.

(A noise within).

MARGARET:

What's all this then?

Enter Suffolk and Warwick with weapons drawn.

KING:

How dare you sirs?! Drawing weapons in my presence....What's the big row?

SUFFOLK:

It's not fair sir. Warwick and the men of Bury all set upon me.

SALISBURY (to the commoners at the door):

Stand aside. The king will hear what you have to say.

Sir, the commoners send word via me that unless you see to the execution of Suffolk they will take him by force and do it for you. This they threaten out of loyalty to Duke Humphrey and yourself, whom they believe willl eventually be his next victim. They would do anything to protect you, whether you like it or not, from such foul enemies as Suffolk, who has already knocked off you beloved uncle Humphrey.

THE COMMONERS (within):

We want an answer, or we will break in!

KING:

Please tell the commoners that I appreciate their support, and that I am of the same mind as them. I have feared for my life and the throne for some time, and therefore with god's will (for I am his unworthy deputy) I swear he will not contaminate the air longer than another three days.

(Exit Salisbury)

MARGARET:

Oh Henry, let me plead for gentle Suffolk.

KING:

You lousey bitch to call him gentle! Don't go on, because you will only aggravate my anger. I have given my word, and that is irrevocable. (Evidently to Suffolk): You leave here within three days, because if you are found on any ground of which I am ruler after that time you will be a dead'un. Come Warwick, I have some important matters to impart to you.

(Exit all except queen and Suffolk.)

MARGARET:

Things aren't going quite as planned. May you have vengeance.

SUFFOLK:

That's enough. Let me take my somewhat depressed leave.

MARGARET:

Wimp! Haven't you the spirit to curse your enemies?

SUFFOLK:

Why should I curse them? It makes no difference to their welfare. If my curses would kill them I would not stop cursing till they were all dead, and then I'd go on some more, with the most horrible curses you can imagine. Let's say........

MARGARET:

You torment yourself. They are just as likely to recoil on you.

SUFFOLK:

You asked me to stop. Will you now ask me to leave? I would happily spend a winter's night on a freezing mountain-top with no clothes cursing them and just think of it as a moment's sport.........

MARGARET:

Oh please stop! Let me comfort you. (she kisses his hand) Let this be a reminder of my feelings for you.

(much passion)

Go now, and I will try to negotiate your pardon and your return. And even now - just one more embrace.......and fare well in the rest of your life.

SUFFOLK:

And thus I am banished more than once. I could bear a wilderness with you, but nothing without. Live and enjoy your life, for I will be unable to enjoy mine without you.

(Enter Vaux.)

MARGARET:

Where are you off to so fast, Vaux?

VAUX:

To tell the king that Cardinal Beaufort is close to death. Suddenly he is plagued by a ghastly ghost which causes him to gasp and stare, and sometimes he talks as though Duke Humphrey's ghost is at his side, and someimes he calls the king and whispers into his pillow as though to the king the secrets of his soul. I have been sent to tell the king that Beaufort calls aloud for him.

MARGARET:

Go tell this heavy message to the king.

(exit Vaux).

It seems to me that we might all be about to fall. Oh Suffolk, if only.....I pray to god you may evade capture now.

(that was a way of getting round a sentence I can't understand - ed)

SUFFOLK (Oh yes. He is still there):

If I leave you I cannot live. I will suffer anything to stay with you - even death.

MARGARET:

Please go. Parting may be painful, but at least you will survive. Go to France, and let me hear from you. Wherever you may go in the world I will find you out.

SUFFOLK:

I go.

MARGARET:

And take my heart with you.

SUFFOLK:

A jewel locked into the saddest cask that ever contained anything of worth. We are thus divided like a split tree. This way I am dead....

MARGARET:

And this way for me.

(Both exit separately)

More next week.

Politics.

Politicians continue to try to have their cake and eat it. Whilst making many noises about pensions in the knowledge that pensioners will be the greatest part of the vote in the next election, they have not actually put anything at all into practice, and it does not look like they will after the election if they do get elected.

Pensioners, being people with sixty or more years experience of life behind them, are in the main people who are unlikely to believe the rhetoric. They may be daft, but they are not as daft as younger people patronisingly think they are, and with the exception of those who suffer from Alzheimer's disease, they have a far clearer picture of how things might be done. Indeed, even those with Alzheimer's only suffer from a loss of memory, which does not mean they are incapable of logic and a sense of justice.

The only disincentive to pensioners to voting in the next election for a party other than New Labour is that they might end up with the most ghastly and dimwitted of all possibilities - the tories again.

Politics 2.

There is plenty of room for a party who are both radical and intelligent in their approach to things, although I do not know if such a party would get elected. Several issues that are of urgent concern to the whole population have not been addressed at all, and others have been swept under the carpet during the term of this government, and a party whose sole purpose was to address these things and then call another election would probably do us all a great favour.

One of the items that attracted some of the thinking population was the suggestion that a New Labour government would try to legislate in such a way as to create proportional representation. This subject seems to have disappeared under the carpet, and the leader of the Liberals, who were promoting this idea for years before the election, made a lord (in exchange for his help in allowing the subject to disappear?). There is room for some work here.

Without a proper system of justice we cannot call ourselves content if we need legal help. The present system only serves those rich enough to use it. In the early days of this present government attampts were made to require judges to declare their masonic allegiances if they had any, and there was some strife over this for a while, but the subject then died (or was swept under the carpet) when the lord chief justice (I think it was he) announced that anyway there were only 94 judges who were freemasons, thus (because freemasons are a 'society with secrets') revealing that he himself was a freemason. This area too, then, remains unaddressed. Not only does there need to be the possibility of an ordinary person who is not rich receiving the same justice as those who are very rich, many people feel they need to know who the freemasons are in the process and possibly have the option of choosing not to be heard by (or even the opposite) a masonic judge. The public do not like seeing that in many a case concerning large sums of money there is much implication of masonic involvement, and little justice apparent. A determined political party could do something about this, although they might need to be people who are willing to risk their lives in order to do so.

Our economy, it would appear, is completely strangulated by an upward spiral of debt caused by the fact that banks can issue their own money electronically (without first having some to issue) and then start charging interest on it. This might seem a harmless enough little game, until one considers that all the money borrowed at any one time cannot possibly be returned because the interest makes the total sum in excess (by a long way) of the total sum borrowed. The end result is that all businesses and all business activities are indirectly the property of the banks - the people least likely to know how to produce goods and services, and the people least likely to serve the community. Banks will bankrupt a perfectly good business employing many people just for a quick financial profit. A consciensious government could field the issuing of money into it's own court, and thereby use the great profits to be had from this activity to the public good. They could also make adjustments to the interest rate, and indeed even make a zero or minus interest rate. Economists would argue against this, and their arguments would be long and complicated, but not necessarily all that useful in the light of the fact that none of them can agree with each other. You never know, they might be right, but they might not.

The Human Rights Act will probably put a great deal of pressure upon the state, owing to the fact that it is largely an act that tries to provide redress against the state for it's many failings (often due to dimwitted economic thinking about how many people you employ to do a job). Local councils, which have been failing their electors for centuries, will actually be called upon to make good the damage of years of mismanagement, corruption, incompetence, etc., and will be brought before courts equally bent or incompetent to plead their case, against whom a case may also be brought if the court fails to behave in a sensible manner (a common enough event). All this could be an area for politicians to look at.

I could go on for days at this game. Have you had enough?

Miscellany.

(Held over from last week).

The following is the content of a letter sent from an English prison by a person who was convicted of murder on the strength of what has always appeared to me to be extremely shakey evidence. It gives a rather extraordinary insight into how we treat people who by our own law the prison service is supposed to be preparing for re-integration into British society. Having tried to negotiate a way of providing prisoners with tuition and entertainment I find it particularly moving, because it sums up so very neatly what happens to these people and those who try to help them, and the attitudes the public and prison staff seem to have towards them (which is not expressed in the letter, but by the letter). It has not been edited:

(1996)

Dear ///,

First of all to say thank you for your letter also say sorry in replying. I have just got back from Strangeways prison. I went there for visits on the **** and got back here today **** so your letter among others were waiting for me in the office.

It was nice to get your letter also showing some support as I don't really get much from the outside with being in prison nearly 8 years now and as each year goes bye you become more forgotten and my family can't afford to send anything. my family are serving a life sentence as well as myself.

///, I would be Very grateful for the computer you have offered me. please let me know if it will cost me anything for the postage and I sort it someway, with a computer I'' be able to learn how to use one and use my time while. in prison to much better use, theres nothing at all to do in prison so I really need to find something to fill my time.

Good luck in getting on the INTERNET the things you can do with computers these still amazes me.

/// whatever help you offer me is very much appreciated so thank you.

I'' finish for now, look forward to hearing from you. Kind regards.

(signed with the first name.)

Upon writing to the prison to find out who to send the computer to and any regulations that needed to be complied with, /// received a brief reply from the governor's office telling him that prisoners were not allowed to have computers as they might hatch escape plans upon them. He then wrote to his correspondent telling him that it was not possible to send the computer and explaining why, but offered to try again if the rules got changed. That was 1996, and no further letter has been received.

Integration with society? How?

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

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