Paper five pound notes are no longer legal tender in England and Wales. They never were in Scotland and Northern Ireland. An 1845 act of parliament allowed three Scottish banks to print their notes but the Bank of England has operated a monopoly in England and Wales since 1921. Anyone extracting money from an ATM […]
In 2012 several English cities voted against directly elected mayors. This week elections were held for mayors in regions that included the same cities. The main responsibility for the incumbents is to promote an economic strategy, even though few of them are expected to have any economic experience or qualifications. Regional economic issues used to […]
In 1963, a new shorter version of cricket was introduced to the English domestic game. It proved popular so a second cup and a league were added. Only one cup survived in 2013 and a new even shorter version was added. T20 proved popular and was copied overseas. This week fifteen of the eighteen […]
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull included Australian Values in new immigration tests announced this week but couldn’t explain what this meant. Later he talked about good sense, mutual respect, democracy, freedom of law and a fair go. None of these are exclusive to Australia. Most workers arriving on 457 visas are from democratic countries, such as […]
This week Tesco apologised for an advert that promoted the drinking of alcohol on Good Friday. It is the latest attempt to commercialise a religious holiday which, along with Christmas Day, predates the Bank Holidays Act of 1871. It is the most solemn occasion in the church’s calendar, marking the crucifixion of Jesus. In recent […]
This week saw reports of a eight-year old girl raised by monkeys in Uttar Pradesh. Inevitably the media compared her to Mowgli, a fictitious example selected ahead of those presented as fact. In 1852 Colonel William Sleeman documented seven cases of wolf boys in India. Other reports followed, in memoirs, correspondence, lectures, and newspapers. John […]
Recently I watched the attached clip of Yassmin Abdel-Magied, which highlighted the issue of unconscious bias. Every day we unwittingly make judgements on the people around us, based on our perceptions not fact. Every day I travel to work on a crowded train and watch as new passengers decide whether to sit next to a stranger […]
Recently I read two very different biographies of Walter Sickert. The first was completed in 1942 by one of his students, Robert Emmons, whilst Sickert was still alive. The other was released this year and is essentially an update of Patricia Cornwell’s 2003 study. Emmons describes an arrogant and eccentric but likeable character with poor interpersonal skills […]
The police are currently looking for a man who stole the identity of a British Doctor and practised in New South Wales for a decade. There is a historical precedent in the form of a man who spent five decades working in British and Australian hospitals under assumed names. Known to history as Andrew John […]
