The Other News From England.

11 December 2000.

(further disruptions have made The Other News very brief this week again.)

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.

This Saturday the entertainment is expected to be Phil playing the guitar, the piano, singing, etc. Mostly material of a Bert Jansch type. No charge, but the hat goes round.

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......

Bonnington Cafe, Vauxhall Grove, London SW8 UK. Near Vauxhall underground and mainline station, buses 185, 36, 2, 88, 322 and others. Booking is difficult.

American Election report.

Although this is The Other News From england, there are times when it might be considered urgent that certain stories from elsewehere reach our readers. Goforth's Ezine comes regularly by email (see details below), and because we get so busy it sometimes does not get read until some time after publication, and I am afraid this is one of the times. Nevertheless, the story is very important to those of us who believe free elections to be a good idea, and certainly to those of us who have the impression that American elections are not anything like 'Third World' elections:

"REPUBLICAN MOB THREATENS ELECTION OFFICIALS AND ASSAULTS POLITICAL OPPONENTS

"by Ray Goforth

"As our American and many overseas readers will know, the fate of our presidential election turns upon the results of the vote recount in Florida. The focus has been on tens of thousands of ballots where the vote counting machines failed to register a choice for presidential candidate. There are a variety of reasons why this might occur ranging from improperly maintained equipment, debris in the ballots, to ballots that had not been punched through completely. The remedy provided by Florida law is to count each ballot by hand.

"The three person Miami-Dade Canvassing Board initially voted at 9:00 am on November 23rd to hand count the 11,000 ballots that had failed to register any vote for the presidential candidate. This "undercount" was significantly higher than registered in previous presidential elections and triple that of surrounding counties which used more modern vote tabulation machines.

"Shortly after voting to initiate the hand count, a mob of approximately 200 people descended upon the Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections office. The crowd pushed their way past guards into the building threatening public officials and demanding that the recount be halted. After some period of time, police were able to move the mob outside the building.

"Once outside the building, the crowd chased down Joe Geller, chairman of the local Democratic Party, because they falsely believed he had tried to steal a ballot (he had a sample ballot). After being struck several times in the head by members of the crowd, police arrived and escorted him away from the scene. Louis Rosero, a Democratic aide, was also punched and kicked by the crowd as he made his way into the building. Not far away, a brick was thrown through the window of the local Democratic Party headquarters.

"Democratic party officials protested these actions and charged that they had been orchestrated by State Republican party officials. It turned out that these charges were in fact correct as members of the mob freely admitted that different Republican Party entities had paid for their airfare, their hotel, their rental cars and provided them with logistical directions for the "protest."

"Three hours after initially voting to authorize the recount, the canvassing board suddenly reversed itself and announced that no recount would take place. Two members of the canvassing board declined all comment but the New York Times reported that one of the members Dan Leahy acknowledged that the intimidation tactics had contributed to their decision.

"While I did not vote for either Al Gore (Democratic Party Candidate) or George Bush (Republican Party Candidate), I must admit that I would certainly rather have Al Gore as our next president. However, I am more concerned with the stability and integrity of the electoral process than I am with the eventual outcome.

"I believe that all Americans should be profoundly disturbed by the specter of a "rent-a-mob" paid for by a political party with the explicit goal of stopping votes from being counted.

"More disturbing than the actual conduct of the mob are the claims by right-wing pundits that this in fact was merely "democracy" in action. As if a crowd of 200 people shouting "we know where you live" at the elected officials charged with making the decision as to whether a recount should take place, is not intended to threaten and intimidate. As if flying party activists in from out of state to assault and batter officials from the opposing political party is not organized thuggery. Winning a democratic election happens when your candidate gets the most votes, NOT when you intimidate election officials into not counting all of the votes.

"Readers of this zine are well aware that far worse election violence occurs regularly around the world. Moreover, it often happens even in the United States (I once worked on a California State Assembly campaign where the local Republican Party hired security guards to wait at polling places and intimidate latino voters).

"What makes these events different for me is the attitude of the Republican Party as a whole. They know that Al Gore got 300,000 more votes than George Bush. They know that Al Gore won the Electoral College (not counting Florida). They know that if all the ballots are counted in Florida that Al Gore will most likely win there. Yet, they show no sense of shame at launching legal maneuver after legal maneuver aimed at stopping the vote count. Moreover, they cheer gleefully as a paid mob batters Democratic Party officials and intimidates the canvassing board into abandoning their announced recount of the votes.

"Is the Republican Party so desperate to regain power that they will justify any conduct, any distortion of the democratic process? Are we to be governed by a President who lost the popular vote but through jackbooted intimidation managed to capture an Electoral College majority? This election marks a sharply negative turn in national American politics. If the eventual outcome is not transparent and just, I fear that the cycle of violence will only get worse."

And of course the reason the British should be alerted by this story is that our voters are just as dim as American ones. Most fashions start in the USA and next find their way to England.

Joe Punter's Shakespeare.

King Henry the 6th. part 2.

ACT 4 .

Scene 9.

Killingworth Castle.

Sound trumpets. Enter king and queen and Somerset on the terrace.

KING HENRY:

There cannot have ever have been a more discontented king than I am. I was king as soon as I was out of my cradle at nine months old. There was never a subject who wanted to be king as much as I want to be a subject.

Enter Buckingham and Old Clifford.

BUCKINGHAM:

Health and glad tidings to your majesty!

KING:

Why, Buckingham? Is the traitor Cade defeated, or has he just retreated to muster his strength?

(Enter multitudes below with halters about their necks)

OLD CLIFFORD:

He's fled, my lord, and his powers have deserted him, and so they come humbly with halters around their necks asking your forgiveness - or not - as you wish.

(the halters are an offer to be hung if the king chooses and are intended to imply submission - ed)

KING:

Thank you for submitting. Heaven be praised. Unfortunate though I may be, I forgive you. I would never wish to be unkind. Please go home.

ALL:

God save the king! God save the king!

Enter a messenger.

MESSENGER:

Please be informed that the duke of York, having newly arrived from Ireland with large forces, is marching this way with the declared intention of capturing the duke of Somerset, who he says is a traitor.

KING:

God, if it isn't Cade it's York! Like a bloody ship that has just survived a tempest only to be taken by pirates! Please Buckingham, go and meet him and ask him what he thinks he's doing. Tell him I'll send duke Edmund to the Tower, and Somerset I will commit you there too until we have dismissed his army.

SOMERSET:

Anything for the sake of king and country, my lord.

KING (apparently to Buckingham - ed):

In any event, be polite, because he is fierce and cannot stand tough language.

BUCKINGHAM:

I shall be, my lord, and no doubt all will be alright in the end.

KING:

Come on wife, let's go indoors and learn to govern better, before England begins to despair of me.

(exit all.)

More next week.

Recycling.

Computer building and modifying freaks will be pleased to know that London Recycling have started marketing used computer bits in their shop in Peckham. Their website is below ('this is a recycling site....'), and I wouldn't mind betting that you could make mail order arrangements with them if you live out of London.

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

Alternet News.

Alternet News might appeal to some readers as a regular list of goings-on in the human 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.

Biotechnology

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

Goforth's social justice e-zine.

This interesting email magazine comes at fairly regular intervals and is of interest to almost anybody who is interested in human rights and green issues. In November 2000 it was going out to about 10,000 addresses. Try it. It won't cost you anything, and you can reproduce the contents without paying. You can subscribe by writing to them at: sjzine@netscape.net, or visit http://members.tripod.com/~goforth/socialjustice.html . Unsubscribe the same way.

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