Bitain is still a country and says "Happy Birthday" to a very old Glaswegian actor, comedian and impressionist called Stanley Baxter

I remember Stanley in one of his tv sketches, many years ago, in which he played the character of a little girl looking up the soap bubbles on his mother's hands, in a take off of the 'fairy liquid' washing up detergent and saying " Bubbles Mummy", only to receive a smack across the face from the hand.

What you possibly didn't know about Stanley, who is 87 years old today is that he  :

* was born in Glasgow, the son of an insurance manager and learned to make kids laugh at school so he wouldn't get beaten up and before that, his earliest memory was walking with his father in their street, Glasgow’s Fergus Drive, and singing "There was a wee man who lived in the moon..."

* found his father did everything he could to discourage him from making a career in show business but  his mother, Bessie, who "desperately wanted to be an actress", lived her unfulfilled ambition vicariously through him and dragged him from one church hall to another to entertain audiences. 

* said that : "aged seven, I was impersonating Harry Lauder and Mae West without knowing who they were, I copied my mother’s impressions and she also gave me stage directions."

* was 13 when the Second World War broke out in 1939 and when Clydebank was blitzed by German bombs, went to a little holiday flat in Millport on the Isle of Cumbrae, with his mother and was educated at the only school on the island and "had a very happy year and a half. I rode my bike all the time: they didn't ask you to do any homework." 

* back in Glasgow, was seen in a church hall doing doing impersonations, by a producer for the BBC's Scottish 'Children's Hour' and signed up for 100 broadcasts standing on a box to reach the microphone and earning a guinea a show in which he "would perform in little adventure stories. We'd get in an old boat and it would drift out to sea just as the episode was coming to an end." 

* left school and studied music at the Scottish Royal Academy of Music, followed by a spell in the Army for National Service in the Far East , where he was posted to the 'Entertainment Unit' and he compered and produced shows, in huts, tents and anywhere else that could be used as a theatre working alongside comedy actor Kenneth Williams, film director John Schlesinger and dramatist Peter Nichols, who used the experience as the basis for his play 'Privates on Parade'.

* left the Army and worked at Glasgow’s 'Citizens Theatre' and in its presentation at the Edinburgh Festival, 'The Thrie Estaites', which was "a wonderful experience," and "Tyrone Guthrie was the producer and was one of the few people who ever brought light, movement, and good entertainment to Edinburgh's dour Assembly Hall, where their other annual function concerned the very serious Convention of the Moderators of the Church of Scotland."

* moved to London to work in tv in 1959 and starred in 'The Stanley Baxter Show' from 1963 to 1971 on BBC One and his 'Stanley Baxter Picture Show' from 1972 to 1975 on ITV.


* performed in the original production of Joe Orton's, then controversial farce, 'What The Butler Saw' at the Queen's Theatre in 1969 and in the West End with Sir Ralph Richardson, Coral Browne and Hayward Morse.

* in Bing Crosby's 'Christmas Special ' a few weeks before his death in 1977,  played multiple roles, including a butler, cook, Charles Dickens and in one skit, opposite a cracking-up Bing, the ghost of Bob Hope's court jester ancestor.

* in his sketches for  'Parliamo Glasgow', conceived as being written by a fictitious scholar visiting Glasgow, took the patois of the city and developed it to comic effect with, for example, a local market, asked : "Zarra marra onna barra, Clara?", which he then translated as : "Is that a marrow on your barrow, Clara?". 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_Lk7qivXbw

The Nation Speaks in 1973 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2eOaOVAsMI

As the Queen :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ofa8fDyOh4Y

As various characters :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umzKoNKjXYU&feature=related

Teach yourself to speak Scottish :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMnKPnPhhYw

* in 1994 he returned to radio, taking the role of Noel Cowad in the BBC World Service 'Play of the Week', 'Marvellous Party' he also read 'Whisky Galore' and 'Jimmy Swan - The Joy Traveller' for BBC Radio, providing the voices of all the characters.

* after a lengthy spell in self-imposed retirement, at the age of  78, in 2004, featured in a series of three half-hour radio sitcoms for BBC Radio 4, entitled 'Stanley Baxter and Friends'.

*  has written a number of books based on the language of Glasgow, as developed in his 'Parliamo Glasgow' sketch and on the humour of the city , 'Bedside Book of Glasgow Humour ', 'Parliamo Glasgow Omnibus '',Let's Parliamo Glasgow Again - Merrorapattur' and 'Stanley Baxter's Suburban Shocker : Featuring Rosemary Morningside and the Garrulous Glaswegian Mr. Ballhead'.

* in a Christmas 2008 Special for ITV, used a mix of archived and new material, with celebrity comedians commenting on Baxter's influence on their lives and careers.

Britain is no country for old men with dementia without support and in the dark about what is happening to them.

Dementia, an incurable brain condition,  is a problem which mainly afflicts old men and women and Jeremy Hunt, the Government Health Secretary, has said that the National Health Service has shockingly low dementia diagnosis rates, with 350,000 of the estimated 670,000 people with dementia unknowingly living with the condition. Given the fact that there are more old men than old women in Britain, that means that there are about 150,000 old men who don't know that they have the condition and therefore are not seeking help to alleviate the symptoms..

Last year he said :
 "As with cancer in the past, too many health and care professionals are not aware of the symptoms. Some even believe that without effective cure there's no point putting people through the anxiety of a memory test, even though drugs can help stave off the condition for several years. It is this grim fatalism that we need to shake off not just within our health service but across society as a whole."

Prime Minister, David Cameron, has said :

"Dementia is a devastating disease – not just for sufferers but for their families and friends too.and as more people live longer, it is fast becoming one of the biggest social and healthcare challenges we face. Families, communities, health systems and their budgets will increasingly be strained as the number affected increases and so we need to do all we can to improve how we research, diagnose and treat the disease. That's why we're using our G8 to bring together health ministers, clinical researchers and healthcare companies. If the brightest minds are working together on this then we've got a greater chance of improving treatments and finding scientific breakthroughs. I've said before that we need an all-out fight-back against dementia that cuts across society. Now we need to cut across borders and spearhead an international approach that could really make a difference."

So old men and women of Britain, take heart for :

* targets are to be set to diagnose another 160,000 of you with the condition.
* the 'postcode lottery' of diagnosis, which has resulted in doctors in some parts of the country where you live accepting less than a third of you with the condition as being in need of support. is to end.
* the annual funding of dementia research will be increased to around £66 million.
* with experts predicting that by 2021, 1 million of you will be living with dementia, politicians eager for your votes are on your case.

Jeremy Hughes, the Chief Executive of the Alzheimer's Society, welcomed the Government's announcement and said :
"There is surely no other condition where we would tolerate people living without treatments, without support and in the dark about what is happening to them. This is exactly what is faced by the 54% of people with dementia who never receive a diagnosis. This ambition from the National Health Service to significantly improve diagnosis rates in two years demonstrates real leadership. It is a key step in improving the lives of people with dementia."

So, a summit on dementia will be held in London in September, bringing together health and science ministers, senior industry figures and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
to spearhead an international approach designed to help old men and women with dementia around the globe.

Peter and Sheila's story :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KesS4QP38PQ

Britain, once a country where an old politician called Geoffrey Howe spoke of 'broken cricket bats' and now one where a very old one speaks of 'broken levers'

Geoffrey Howe is an 86 year old politician with a long pedigree in the job and the 'gravitas' which goes with it, who in the 1980's held the greatest offices of state as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Foreign Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister in the Government of Margaret Thatcher. It was, however, the style of his resignation from her government in 1990, when he was 64, that he is best remembered.

Geoffrey's resignation was based on his disagreement with the way in which Mrs Thatcher His resignation was based on his disagreement with the way Mrs Thatcher was handling Britain's relations with the European Community and in his famous resignation speech in the House of Commons on 13 November, he attacked her for running increasingly serious risks for the future of the country and criticised her for undermining the policies on European Monetary Union  proposed by her own Chancellor and Governor of the Bank of England. He offered a striking cricket simile for British negotiations on EMU in Europe when he said :

 "It is rather like sending your opening batsmen to the crease, only for them to find, as the first balls are being bowled, that their bats have been broken before the game by the team captain". He called on others to "consider their own response to the tragic conflict of loyalties with which I have myself wrestled for perhaps too long".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvyAMjGSoKQ : click above the clock on the bottom bar.

His speech was widely seen as the key catalyst for the leadership challenge of Michael Heseltine a few days later, as well as Mrs Thatcher's subsequent resignation as Prime Minister and party leader on 22 November 1990, after failing to win a vote in the first ballot by a sufficient margin to prevent a second ballot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYGM7P3AWlE

Now, 23 years later and once again over the issue of Britain's relations with Europe, speaking of Prime Minister, David Cameron, he said in an article published yesterday in the 'Observer' newspaper :

'Sadly, by making it clear in January that he opposes the current terms of UK membership of the European Union, the Prime Minister has opened a Pandora's box politically and seems to be losing control of his party in the process...

Archimedes said: "Give me a place on which to stand and lever long enough, and I will move the world." British foreign policy should be about maximising and exploiting the levers we possess – whether through Europe, the transatlantic relationship or the Commonwealth – not breaking them or throwing them away.

In this context, I have yet to meet any significant western political figure from beyond our shores who can understand why Britain would even contemplate leaving the European Union which is now a key point of leverage for this country in the modern world.'

Geoffrey's full article :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/18/david-cameron-control-geoffrey-howe


One letter to the newspaper read :
'To destroy one Tory PM, Mr Howe, may be regarded as a misfortune; to destroy two looks like carelessness'.

Britain is still a place for and says "Happy Birthday" to an old rocker and philanthropist called Pete Townshend

Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend, who is known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for 'The Who' with a career which spans more than forty years, is 68 today.

What you possibly didn't know about Pete, that he :

* was born in Chiswick, London into a musical family, his father a professional saxophonist in 'The Sqaudronaires' (right) and mother a singer and was drawn to rock and roll as a boy and saw Elvis in 'Rock Around the Clock' repeatedly at the age of 11.

* got his first guitar when he was 12 and was influenced by Link Ray, John Lee Hooker, Bo Diddley and Hank Marvin until he heard "heard rhythm & blues and it was all over."

* said : " The first record I remember was 'Green Onions' by Booker T. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-7QSMyz5rg I never listened that much to Muddy Waters or people like that. It was Steve Cropper (right) who really turned me on to aggressive guitar playing."

* left school Acton County Grammar School at the age of 16 and enrolled at Ealing Art College with a view to becoming a graphic artist and at 17 with school fiend , John Entwistle formed 'The Confederates', a Dixieland duet and played banjo with John on horns.

* moved on to 'The Detours', a skiffle/rock and roll band fronted by Roger Daltrey another former schoolmate and in 1964 renamed themselves 'The Who' and had drummer Keith Moon join them. 

* wrote a series of successful singles for the band, including "I Can't Explain', https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3h--K5928M
at the age of 20 in 1965 and 'My Generation' :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdRs1gKpeGg , 
at 21 in 1966, 'Substitute' at 22 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eswQl-hcvU0
in 1967 : 'I'm a Boy' : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4_eSW6D6sc and 'Pictures of Lily' at 24 in 1969 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BmkBroiw1s
and 'Pinball Wizard' : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2aIsj8lcik


* became known for his eccentric stage style during the band's early days, often interrupting concerts with lengthy introductions of songs and with a signature move in which he would swing his right arm against the guitar strings in a style reminiscent of the vanes of a windmill and became one of the first musicians known for smashing guitars on stage and would repeatedly throw them into his amplifiers and speaker cabinets.

In the intervening 40 years :

* created the rock operas 'Tommy' and Quadropenia' and saw 'The Who' continue to thrive, despite the drug related deaths of Keith in 1978 and John in 2002.

* suffers from partial deafness and tinnitus believed to be the result of extensive exposure to loud music including the concert at the Charlton Athletic Football Club,London, in 1976 listed as the 'Loudest Concert Ever' where the volume level was measured at 126 decibels 32 metres from the stage.

* has been involved with various charities and other philanthropic efforts both as a solo artist and with 'The Who and organised his 1974 benefit show to raise funds for the 'Camden Square Community Play Center.'

* had donated money through his services to :
- drug rehabiltation programmes

- children with autism and mental retardation through the 'Music Therapy Foundation'
- the Californian 'Bridge School Benefit' for children with severe speech and physical impairments
- the Chicago 'Maryville Academy Children's Charity'
 - the British Teenage Cancer Trust
- Amnesty International

* in 2011 launched with Roger 'The Daltrey/Townshend Teen and Young Adult Cancer Program' at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Centre in Los Angeles to be funded by The Who's charity, 'The Who Cares Trust'.
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/the-who-rock-icons-launch-daltrey-218302.aspx

Britain is still a country for and says "Happy Birthday" to an old political cartoonist called Ralph Steadman

Ralph, who is renowned for his political and social caricatures, cartoons and picture books, is 77 years old today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZz3uT7CgOc

What you possibly didn't know about Ralph, that he :

* was born in Wallasey, Cheshire, the son of a father who was a commercial traveller selling women's clothes.

* was educated at Abergele Grammar School, but left in 1952 aged sixteen, unable to bear the strict authority of the headmaster, who gave him "fear and hatred of authority" and where he "couldn't take it any longer" and "just had to get out".

* got a job with the aircraft company, De Havilland, but finding factory life unbearable, got a job at Woolworth's as a trainee manager then at the age of 18 in 1954 worked in an advertising agency in Colwyn Bay, where he recalled that "I learned to make trademarks and tea."

* between 1954 and 1956, did National Service in the Royal Air Force while continuing to take 'Percy V. Bradshaw's Correspondence Course in Cartooning', which his parents had paid for. 

* from 1955 sent a drawing to 'Punch' magazine every week and had his first cartoon in print in 1956 dealing with Nasser and the Suez crisis in the Manchester Evening Chronicle in 1956 and later said that his work "was a Giles in all but name."

* joined the Kemsley Newspaper Group and worked as a cartoonist from 1959 to 1961, producing editorial cartoons and a weekly panel about a teenage girl named 'Teeny' and at that time met Gerald Scarfe at a meeting of the Cartoonists' Club of Great Britain.

* spent time with Gerald in the Victoria and Albert Museum, sketching statues and suits of armour and  hours pacing the streets long into the night, talking about art and the future and discussing ways of putting the world right.

* started to freelance in 1961 selling cartoons to 'Punch', the 'Daily Sketch', and the 'Daily Telegraph' and later recalled : "I got involved firstly with Punch, but they weren't really interested in social comment, they wanted jokes."

* in 1962, decided to submit a drawing entitled 'Plastic People' 'to the newly-launched magazine, 'Private Eye', for which Richard Ingrams sent him £5 and a note saying 'More power to your elbow' and published it with a double page spread in issue number 11.

* In 1967 became 'Artist-in-Residence' at Sussex University where at the time I was a second year undergraduate student and have a dim recollection of some of his cartoons in frames on the walls of the JCR.

* in 1970, made a short visit to the USA and later said : "For me, art had to be about freedom. England at the end of the 1960s was parochial. I started drawing Nixon and I wanted to work in America" and teamed him up with Hunter S. Thompson in what became a lasting partnership and illustrated his book, 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'.

* in June 1970, returned to London to cover the forthcoming General Election for 'The Times', as the second political cartoonist the paper had ever employed, worked for 6 months before he was told that the editor, William Rees-Mogg, had begun to "feel your cartoons are a little seditious and I don't think we need them in the pages of the Times, so I'll have to ask you to leave." 

* was now changing his style and recalled that : “I developed this approach to drawing which became far more visceral, It was a kind of anger, really. I mean, it was partly induced by Hunter, but also the screaming lifestyle of America.” 

* from 1976 to 1980 drew political cartoons for the 'New Statesman', and contributed to 'Rolling Stone', 'Radio Times', 'Black Dwarf', 'New York Times', 'Times Higher Education Supplement', 'New Scientist', 'Independent', 'Guardian', 'Observer' and 'Sunday Times'. 

* was filmed working in 1979 on the 'Innes Book of Records' : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwLSc0gweyQ

* in 1987, dismayed by the success of ITV's 'Spitting Image', which seemed to turn political caricature into entertainment, stopped drawing politicians, "leaving them to their latex lookalikes which rendered their latex antics a cosy entertainment in every living room throughout the land. You will never see a politician's face in my drawings again" but later relented to the extent of drawing politicians' legs, particularly in a series of 'Election '97' drawings for 'New Statesman'.

* in 1985, designed a set of four British postage stamps to commemorate the appearance of Halley's Comet and from 1987, catalogues for the wine merchant Oddbins, which inspired Hunter S. Thompson to write to him that 'politics was below you, so you stooped to worship grapes.'

* in 1989 said : “Somehow in people’s minds you associate a cartoonist with someone who either does it in his spare time or didn’t get a very good education and therefore scribbles and does a few gags. I think newspapers...prefer it that way; keep the newspaper cartoonist under wraps. They use them to sell newspapers, but they...don’t give them that kind of dignified importance that they might give to their lead political writers.” 

* retained the power to offend and in 1992 London Transport banned a poster he had designed for a cartoon exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery, a photomontage with guns and a headless man spattered with blood because, as a spokesman explained, "they said it was a poster which showed blood and that the white areas around it would invite graffiti. They also said the guns could incite violence."

* in 2002 said : "Political satire is so boring now. Why the hell would I want to draw Tony Blair? The only politicians I've ever liked were Dennis Healey, Michael Foot and Tony Benn. Really nice people, good folk. The rest of them, I mean this whole crowd, this spun crowd of degenerate politicians are just not worth drawing."

* reacted badly to Hunter S Thompson's suicide in 2005 : http://www.bizarremag.com/film-and-music/interviews/4333/ralph_steadman.htm

* once told an interviewer : "When I began I thought I could change the world. It's much worse now than when I started, so I haven't done much of a job,"

My earlier post about Ralph's local pub in Kent :

Friday, 28 May 2010

Britain is a country with old villages in rude health and old pubs with rude landlords

http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/britain-is-country-with-old-villages-in.html

and my farewell to Ralph's erstwhile friend, Ronald Searle :

Tuesday, 3 January 2012

Britain is no longer a country for and says "Goodbye" to its greatest cartoonist called Ronald Searle

http://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/britain-is-no-longer-country-for-and.html

Britain is no country for the more and more old men falling deeper and deeper into debt

Britain, still one of the top ten richest countries in the world, is also one where one of its biggest debt charities has warned of a crisis among old men and women  over the age of 60, with record numbers facing insolvency.

'Step Change', which offers counselling and debt management advice, said 13,148 people aged 60 and over, equal to around 36 a day, sought help last year, compared with 9,628 in 2009 with the total up by 40% since the economic recession began.

The facts about this age group are that :

* they have larger debts than any other age group, owing on average £23,000, while the typical debts of the rest of those contacting the charity are around £17,650.

* this only includes their 'unsecured debt's' such as credit cards, overdrafts, personal loans and payday loans and for those who have a mortgage, classed as a 'secured debt', the total burden is even larger.

* credit cards are fuelling their problem with debtors typically having more than £15,000 of unpaid credit card bills, around £5,000 more than the average for all other age groups.

Delroy Corinaldi, one of the charity’s directors, said: 

"The rise in the number of older people seeking help from the charity, along with their higher than average debt levels is very worrying. Whatever someone’s income level during their working life, most would expect to be in a stable, if not comfortable, financial situation when they are older."

Neil Duncan-Jordan, from the 'National Pensioners Convention', said :
He feared the problems were only going to increase and "people just don’t have the income to be able to sustain their lifestyle. The number of old people going to food banks is increasing. The number going for debt advice is increasing. The number of people really really struggling, usually in silence, is increasing."

He also said that last month’s increase in the state pension of just 38p a day from £107.45 to £110.15 a week or £2.70 a week, barely scratches the surface of the problem.
"The increase does not keep pace with the rising cost of living that everybody, including pensioners, is facing."

Official figures show more than 193,000 old men and 111,000 old women at and over the age of 70 are still working in Britain with many saying that they are too poor to stop working.

Britain in 2013 : not a happy country for many debt-ridden and still-working old men.

Britain is no country for old men who need help with dressing and eating

Tucked away in the 'Guardian' last week was a small article which spelt big implications for thousands of old men and women in Britain :

Warning over care of the elderly and disabled after £2.7 billion cut

It made the following points, that :

* social care chiefs in Britain warn that more old men and women and people with disabilities will be denied state-funded care support over the next two years as local authority finances continue to take a battering from funding cuts.

* many recipients of basic state-funded care such as help with either washing and eating or meals on wheels, could face a reduced service, while others will lose out on care support altogether.

* Sandie Keene, President of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services said : "Some of the people we have responsibilities for may be affected by serious reductions in service – with more in the pipeline over the next two years."

* councils plan to make £800 million in adult social care savings over the next 12 months alone. 

* £104 million of the cuts in 2013-14 will come in direct withdrawal of services and as Sandie said : " It is absolutely clear that all the ingenuity and skill that we have brought to cushioning vulnerable people as far as possible from the effects of the economic circumstances cannot be stretched any further."

Britain in 2013 : a sad country whose Government has found that it is  necessary to save money spent on helping the poor old men and women who need help with those basic needs : to dress and eat.

Britain is no longer a country for the cellar of an old wine buff called Hugh Johnson

The world's best-selling wine writer, 74 year old Hugh Johnson, is moving from his house, which has a five-room wine cellar, to one with a coal hole, to be closer to children and grandchildren and as a consequence is selling off his private cellar after half a century of collecting. 
Like many an old downsizer, Hugh  is struggling to let go. Speaking of a pair of magnums of chablis about to go under the hammer in an Essex auction room he said : 
"I shouldn't be selling them. I don't want to look. You see, when I look at the bottles I know exactly how they will taste."

In last monday's sale at Sworder's Auctioneers over £100,000 worth of wines went under the hammer, including :

* rare vintages dating back to 1830.

* a £2,000 1945 Chateau Latour made in the balmy summer after VE Day at the end of the Second World War.
* his own 'desert island bottle', a single 1971 German riesling which sold for £6,000.
* an amphora dredged from the Mediterranean dated AD100.

For many in the wine world the sale of Hugh's wine marks the end of an era that began in the 1960s when it was the preserve of the elite and Britons drank on average just a third of a glass a week. Between then and now, Johnson's annual pocket wine guide, featuring hundred of bite-sized verdicts, has sold 12 million copies, his 'World Atlas of Wine', first published in 1971, close to 4 million and wine consumption in Britain has increased twelvefold.
Hugh is among a small group who are believed to have tasted the oldest wine ever, a 1540 Steinwein from Germany of which he said :
"The sugars created by the sunshine in the summer of 1540 were there and that was miraculous. There is only one bottle left and the owner says he won't open it which is stupid."

In his career Hugh :

* advised British Airways on how to deliver better wine at 35,000ft.

* started the first newspaper wine club at the Sunday Times in the 1970s. 

* was among the first to push the credentials of the New World wines that now fill supermarket shelves. 

* in 1976, established the 'Zinfandel Club' to promote California and declared an Australian wine, Penfolds Grange, the equal of a top Bordeaux.

* in 2005 expressed regret at the influence of the American wine critic Robert Parker :
"Imperial hegemony lives in Washington and the dictator of taste in Baltimore."

Before leaving his lifetime's collection, there was a moment for a last sniff and sip. He uncorked a bottle of Tokaji, a sweet and golden Hungarian wine from a famous vineyard he helped rehabilitate in 1990, swirled and inhaled its musty aroma and said :
"Wine connects man and nature and time in a way nothing else does, In a bottle of wine you have an identity created by a craftsman with materials at his disposal, which include the weather. That can't be replicated and it stays alive for centuries."

Hugh and the origin of wine :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJnHLdGxhlc