The Other News From England.

25 June 2001.

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 Hugh Harris Saxophone, Gabriele Gad piano (old-fashioned jazz both old and new) - but check because at this time of year things are less predictable. 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.

Ecology.

Continuing the subject of the relationship between honesty and ecology. This week the subject continues, but viewed from a different point of view.

In our area there is a bent mechanic called Salah. He will know who I mean, but probably you will not - not even if you live here. If you do, then you may consider that I am being libellous, or alternatively if you are one of his victims you may consider that I am completely just in what I say. Whichever way you lean, there wil be a few people who know exactly what and who I am talking about, because it will have cost them dearly.

In 1999, Salah did some work on my car. For the small amount of work he did, it took an inordinately long time to do, and when it was returned to me there were about 2,000 more miles on the clock than when I had left it (at the time, I just thought I might have made a mistake). Furthermore, it was perfectly obvious that certain parts had been changed, but as it had been in for work I was obliged to believe that this had been necessary - despite the fact that the work he had been engaged to do had nothing to do with the parts which had been changed. In the ensuing two years, various parts which were not very far from new (according to my records and memory) broke down, leading me to wonder if there might be something wrong. Repairs cost in the region of £500 for parts, and it was not until this year, when I had to replace some bulbs in the instrument panel, that I discovered it had been changed (I had repaired it in a way which showed when I had first got the car, and my repairs were not there) - and whilst the panel was out I noticed that parts of the cruise control were missing, which was the explanation for it not working. Closer inspection revealed that other cruise control parts were faulty, so that it would not have worked anyway, whilst it had been working when I took the car in.

During the past two years, the car has done approximately 10 miles less per gallon of fuel for 24,000 miles, this being largely because the fuel pump that Salah had fitted was faulty, but also because there was no cruise control to maximise fuel economy.

The cost to me of having Salah work on my car has been approximately 100 hours of my time (largely looking for explanations for bad running and fixing faulty workmanship), the £500 mentioned above on parts, and approximately £800 more on diesel than should have been spent. As far as I am able to calculate, that could be valued at about £4,800 including labour (because commercial rates for mechanics are in the £35-40 per hour region), which is more than the car would fetch at auction, even though it is designed to run for 25 years with next to no trouble. Furthermore, that would probably not be all, because we do not yet know what else Salah has done.

The increase in the damage to your environment as a result of Salah's dishonesty is beyond my ability to measure. He is indeed an environmental vandal, and I expect you would like to know how he gets away with it.

When you say something he doesn't want to answer, he suddenly finds he can't speak English well enough to understand you, the little scheister.

(More of this later, as now I find I have witnesses I intend to pursue him for recompense - through the courts if necessary).

Joe Punter's Shakespeare.

King Henry the 6th. part 3.

ACT 4 .

Scene 8.

London. the palace.

Flourish. Enter King Henry, Warwick, Monmouth, Clarence, Exeter and Oxford.

WARWICK:

What's happening lords? Edward has crossed safely from Belgium with hasty Germans and blunt Hollanders, and with these troops does march to London. Many foolish people flock to him.

OXFORD:

Let's get some men together and beat him back again.

CLARENCE:

A little fire is quickly trodden out, yet if it were allowed to grow it could be impossible to quench.

WARWICK:

In Warwickshire there are plenty of men brave true to me who will help in this. These I will muster up. And thou, son Clarence, shall stir up men in Norfolk and Suffolk, and in Kent the knights and gentlemen will come with thee. Thou, brother Montague, in Buckingham, Northampton and Leicester shalt find men well inclined to hear you. And thou, brave Oxford, wondrous well beloved, shall muster thy friends in Oxfordshire. My sovereign, with loving citizens, you shall rest in London till we come to him. Fair lords, take leave, and linger not to reply. Farewell, my sovereign.

KING HENRY:

Farewell my Hector, and my Troy's true hope.

CLARENCE:

In sign of my loyalty, I kiss your highness's hand.

KING H.:

Well-minded Clarence, be fortunate.

MONTGOMERY:

Comfort, my lord. And so I take my leave.

OXFORD (kissing Henry's hand):

And thus I seal my truth, and bid adieu.

KING H.:

Once more a happy farewell to you both.

WARWICK:

Farewell, sweet lords. Let's meet at Coventry.

(exit all except King H and Exeter.)

KING H.:

Here at the palace I will rest a while. What does your lordship think? Methinks the power Edward has in field should not be able to counter mine.

EXETER:

The difficulty is that he may seduce the rest.

KING H.:

That is not my fear. I have listened to their demands nor delayed dealing with their suits. My pity has been balm to heal their wounds, my mildness has calmed their swelling griefs, my mercy dried their tears. I have not tried to get at their wealth nor oppressed them with great taxes, nor craved revenge on them, though they have erred much. Why should they love Edward more than me? No, Exeter. These graces challenge grace. An when the lion fawns upon the lamb, the lamb will never fail to follow him.

(shout within: A York! A York!)

EXETER:

Hark, hark, my lord. What shouts are these?

Enter King Edward and Gloster with soldiers.

KING E.:

Seize the shame-faced Henry and take him away, and once again proclaim us king of England. You are the fountain that makes small brooks flow. Now your spring is stopped and my sea shall suck them dry - and shall be so much higher as a result. Take him to the Tower. Do not let him speak.

(exit some with King H.)

And, lords, towards Coventry we now set our course, where Warwick now remains. The sun shines hot - and if we delay cold winter could mar our efforts.

GLOSTER:

Set off immediately, before his forces have time to muster, and take the traitor unawares. Brave warriors, march towards Coventry.

All exit.

More next week.

Politics.

In the recent election a candidate describing himself as the Health Service Candidate ousted the Labour MP for Kidderminster by a stunning majority - I think it was about 28,000 to 8,000.

Does this mean that we are about to see the chance to elect politicians we want to elect rather than voting for the one most likely to stop the Tories getting in?

Does this mean that at last the Labour party will be obliged to actually honour it's pledges both to the Liberal Party and to the public?

Does this mean that a party called the Health Service Party or the Railway Party, or the Industry Party have a viable chance of election?

And does it mean that the dishonest, self-seeking little gits who run political parties will now be trying to do exactly the same thing they have always done whilst using another name to do it?

Wow! What progress.

Southwark.

(yawn).

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

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: Goforth's site

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 (this may now have been provided, but please email if you might like to join in in some way - ed.)

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