The 6th of February is one of those days where a number of important and world changing events took place:

King George VI dies - Princess Elizabeth became Queen whilst she was in Kenya. Last week I met someone who had lived in Kenya some years ago, they could not believe how the country has ended up and appears to have gone backwards, not forwards, since the days of Kenyatta.

Manchester United air crash 1958 - 21 dead including 6 footballers (the 7th - Duncan Edwards - dies in hospital later), Matt Busby was seriosuly injured. It is difficult to know why this was significant until you realise that the team put themselves back on a football field only a week later and went on to win the FA cup that year. More significant was that other teams lent them players to ensure they could take part in their matches immediately after the crash. can you imagine that happening in football now?

Man plays golf on moon 1971 - The first space mission after the ill-fated Apollo 13 had an astronaut smuggle a golf club and balls on board in his flight suit. he then hit them during a spacewalk. In fact he probably holds the record for the longest golf drive in the universe - they might still be going

Blair longest serving Labour PM 2005 - He never reached Margaret Thatcher’s period in office but did go beyond the two periods of Wilson rule. Is the Labour party proud of that record? Did they ever love Blair?

Channel Tunnel given go-ahead 1964 - It was finally opened in 1994 (one year late). It did not turn a profit until 1999. Also in 1999 it was voted the greatest construction achievement of the 29th century by a survey of 200 engineers.

All this in just one day!

BBC ON THIS DAY | 6 | 1952: King George VI dies in his sleep

It seems the origins of pancake race back to Saxon times and the town of Ripon. Well, it appears the health and safety czars and czarinas have now caught up with the tossing of pancakes as a threat to life and limb.

Red tape has ended the annual pancake race in the North Yorkshire city of Ripon.

Health and safety, child protection and insurance rules have gradually diminished the supply of volunteers in the cathedral city, where the messy event traditionally takes over the streets on Shrove Tuesday. “Finding volunteers to man the event on the day has just got too difficult,” said Bernard Bateman of Ripon town council, which co-organised the race with the Cathedral hierarchy. “We have had plenty of people wanting to take part, but no longer enough to organise them.”

The race, which sees a team of choristers and often portly clerics take on the pride of the town’s school and businesses, goes back - with regular interruptions - to pre-medieval times. Its origins are supposed to lie in a Saxon trick played on invading Danes, who accepted alcohol-drenched pancakes from local women who then stabbed them to death while they slept. Ripon also has the distinction of triggering America’s main pancake race, at Washington cathedral, which was launched after clergy saw a picture of the dean and chapter at Ripon running at full lick.

“Sadly, we’ve looked at things very carefully this year and decided that it can’t take place,” said the current dean, and race co-organiser, the Very Rev Keith Jukes. “The big reason is healthy and safety.

Technorati Tags: Shrove Tuesday, Ripon cathedral

Red tape catches up with pancake racers | Food and drink | Life and Health

I am a huge supporter of the arts but it appears that the recent Arts Council funding fiddling is somewhat ill conceived.

It is of course right that the AC have the right to re-prioritise their funding and move it around. It, of course, needs to be clarified that the amount of money the AC spend is remaining constant. But whilst changing the priorities, and thus the types of organisations that are receiving cuts or new money, is clearly right it appears that once again this has been in a rather cack-handed way that does nothing to honour the enormous work that some of these organisation have contributed. Surely it would have ben better to have set, say a three-year funding change where existing organisations are weaned off their grant dependency whilst other new organisation start to benefit?

That said, I am a great supporter of the arts. I believe very strongly, for example, that music has the ability to transform the lives of young people. My only wish is that more could have the opportunity to make music as I do feel that things such as community cohesion can be addressed through the power of music making ‘together’. But this requires more money and a good deal of wider opportunity. In my view the sign of a socialised modern country is how much it allows the arts to thrive. Maybe the time has come to really evaluate what we spend on the arts and consider whether, in an increasingly leisure driven world, we should be doing more to support good art, in all its forms.

Technorati Tags: Arts Council, music, arts cuts

Axe falls on almost 200 theatres, galleries and community groups - Times Online

This is a very surprising development in the world of politics and this Government tearing up the traditional rulebook of what protection MPs enjoy.

It is clear that for a long time both Brown and Blair believed backbench MPs to be an irrelevancy. In this context the fact they are being bugged by the Government should come as no surprise.

But then the next question is… why should MPs be exempt from bugging? If the state has reason to believe that they, or their associates, are a danger then what is to stop them being bugged? My understanding is that bugging is allowed but only once the authority of the Prime Minister has been sought and give.

The public seem to believe MPs should be bugged, a poll being run by the BBC says that 3 to 1 the public believes MP’s should not be exempt. But then, how much of that is a reflection of how much utter contempt the public holds for MPs?

Technorati Tags: bugging mps

BBC NEWS | Politics | Brown ‘unaware of bugging letter

There is a somewhat bizarre report in the Sunday papers today. Apparently, the Government has decided that husbands with multiple wives will be given the go-ahead tomorrow to claim extra welfare benefits. This comes despite the fact that bigamy is still illegal in this country.

Apparently the DWP have issued new guidelines saying:

“Where there is a valid polygamous marriage the claimant and one spouse will be paid the couple rate … The amount payable for each additional spouse is presently £33.65.”

Can anyone think of anything more ridiculous?

Technorati Tags: Bigamy, tax, benefits

Apologies for the lightness of the posting recently. I have been very busy as well as suffering an attack of back pain.

WordPress have also had some posting problems this weekend.

It is quite clear, if this report is correct, that South Somerset District Council is spending money on the wrong priorities.

The very idea that putting up a poster to advertise a village coffee morning, providing they are taken down again, is not an anti-social activity. In fact quite the opposite is true, you can argue that the coffee morning is doing something for local community cohesion.

Still, it now seems the Council want to spend money sending out silly notices and having enforcement officers specifically undertaking the task of patrolling rural villages instructing village halls to take down their notices.

Please, can we have some common sense.

Technorati Tags: Misterton, community cohesion

Council bans villagers putting up ‘anti-social’ coffee morning posters on lamp posts| News | This is London

He’s gone - sounds a bit like the former member of Tatton - Neil Hamilton!

Mr Hain, work and pensions secretary and Wales secretary, said he had stood down so he could “clear my name”.

Frankly the man was an odious piece of work who shares the Gordon Brown trait of enjoying the partisan politics more than what can be done to improve the lives of the people of this country.

This is turning into a very difficult time for the Labour party, long may it continue.