Britain is no longer a country for a remarkable old man called Sir Patrick Leigh Fermour

Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor highly regarded travel writer and heroic Wartime 'Special Operations Executive' Officer has died at the age of 96.

Things which are interesting about Leigh, that he :

* as a boy was expelled from King's school, Canterbury, where he had formed an illicit liaison with the local greengrocer's daughter, eight years older than him, in whom perhaps he glimpsed a loving mother and where his housemaster described him as : 'a dangerous mixture of sophistication and recklessness.'

* at the age of 18 in 1933, rather than go to university, set out to walk from the Hook of Holland to what he called 'Constantinople' (Istanbul).

* wrote 65 years later that his journey took him :
'south-east through the snow into Germany, then up the Rhine and eastwards down the Danube ... in Hungary I borrowed a horse, then plunged into Transylvania; from Romania, on into Bulgaria'


* at New Year, 1935, crossed the Turkish border at Adrianople and reached his destination.



* undertook his trek with the idea of writing a book, which was to become 'A Time of Gifts' and has detailed descriptions of sights, conversations, drinks imbibed, the cadence of birdsong and is almost entirely a work of mature recollection.

* wrote that when he set out for the Netherlands after a final celebration with friends 'a thousand glistening umbrellas were tilted over a thousand bowler hats in Piccadilly; the Jermyn Street shops, distorted by streaming water, had become a submarine arcade"'

* in Athens, after his main journey to Istanbul was completed, met the first great love of his life, Balasha Cantacuzene, a Romanian princess 12 years his senior, with whom he lived on the family's 'Tolstoyan' estate in Moldavia until the outbreak of the Second World War.

* was serving with the Irish Guards during the War and joined the 'Special Operations Executive' in 1941 and helped to co-ordinate the resistance in German-occupied Crete.



* commanded, as he put it, 'some minor guerrilla operations', the most audacious of which was the ambush and kidnap of the German commander of the island, General Heinrich Kreipe, who was spirited off to Alexandria.

* throughout his adult life, was a great performer of party turns: songs in Cretan dialect; 'The Walrus and the Carpenter' recited backwards; 'Falling in Love Again' in German and 'It's a Long Way to Tipperary' in Hindustani.



* in the 1950s, lived the life of a nomadin Italy, France, Cameroon, as well as various corners of England and his beloved Greece and described in his book, 'In Tearing Haste'.












* took no part in the making of the 1957 film, 'Ill Met by Moonlight' about the kidnap of General Kreipe in which Dirk Bogarde played him.

Ill Met by Moonlight :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJx4Bas2dLM

Britain is a rich country and no country for old men who want care at home 'and' respect for their human rights

An article in 'The Daily Mail' today was entitled :
Bad home care for elderly 'breaches human rights'.

It centred on an 'interim' report for the 'Equality and Human Rights Commission' which has revealed that home care services are so under-resourced that the amount of time a care provider spends with a client has been reduced so much that they often provide nothing more than a cursory service. The Commission said that effectively the service users' basis human rights are being ignored.

Old men and women in Britain receiving home care in their own homes are :

* being left in bed for 17 hours at a time, undressed in front of windows in open view of neighbours and abandoned in soiled beds and clothes.

* with 15 minute slots of care, being forced to choose between either 'being washed' or 'being fed'.

* sometimes malnourished because of the failure of carers to feed them.

* because of staff shortages, sometimes seen by dozens of different carers and so they have to repeat personal information with each of them.


Baroness Sally Greengross, an EHRC Commissioner, said there had never been enough resources allocated to this type of care and :

" Many older people have little or no control over what time the home care visit happens. As a result, we have heard of people being put to bed at 5pm and not helped to get up until 10am, a period of 17 hours.
We have had reports of neglect, in which people have been left in filthy nightwear and bedding after a home care visit or without a wash or hair wash for several weeks."

"We have been told about an older person being regularly undressed by care staff in front of his bungalow window, and another in front of family members, instead of in privacy."

"A thorough training process would make sure staff took the simple steps to avoid these basic mistakes. This would have a huge impact on the day-to-day lives of those they care for."

The interim report concluded:
‘The full extent of the potential human rights breaches is likely to be masked by the fear of complaining'.

The BBC Radio report :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13813460

P.S.
Britain is Number 6 in the World's top ten economies with an Annual Gross Domestic Product of $2,149,000,000,000,000,000

Britain says "Happy Birthday" to an old film director called Ken Loach

Ken Loach is 75 today.



For me he will always be remembered for his wonderful 1969 film 'Kes'. Here is a clip from the football match. Forty two years on and it still makes me smile. Thank you Ken. :

The football match :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUCQhertnbU

The caning :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZB0i0NzOe0

P.S. I would have given Ken a longer posting, but I'm off to Paris for the weekend.

Britain's 'England' is no Country for old men with cancer

Sky News reported on Jun 9th, 2011 that :

Older People Receive Worse National Health Service Cancer Care

It made the point that, according to new research, old people with cancer are more likely to die in England than in a number of other countries, because of 'age bias'.


Old men and women in England take note, apparently :

* a report by The King's Fund, which examines ways to improve the National Health Service, found that you struggle to access treatment compared to younger people with the disease.
http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/cancer_survival.html

* you are less likely to receive intensive investigation and treatment and to undergo radical surgery than younger patients and another key factor is your late diagnosis.

* your survival rates are worse than other leading countries like Canada, Australia, Sweden and Norway.

Catherine Foot, Senior Fellow at 'The King's Fund', has said:




"England still has a way to go to reach cancer survival rates that are ranked with the best international performers.
The evidence points to early diagnosis as being key to improving outcomes. We hope urgent priority is given to closing the gap in survival rates between different groups in society.
We found that older people are particularly burdened by this, being more likely to have cancer, to be diagnosed later, to be under-treated and to experience worse outcomes."

Sarah Woolnough, 'Cancer Research UK's' Director of Policy has said:

"We believe the key reason we do worse is that we often diagnose cancer late in England, meaning the disease is often more advanced when diagnosed and treatment may not be so effective.

Variations in access to high-quality treatment also play a part, particularly among older people."

P.S.
Catherine Foot talking about cancer care in January this year :
http://www.ecancermedicalscience.com/tv/video-by-category.asp?play=399&cid=4&scid=35&q=

P.P.S.
Chris Hiley's Blog focusing on these issues :
http://www.chrishiley.com/myblog

Britain in 2011 and Ireland in 1926 - No Countries for Old Men

W.B.Yeats, the Irish poet, was 60 or 61 when he wrote 'Sailing to Byzantium' and created the expression 'No Country for Old Men' in 1926.








The poem is :

* a statement about the agony of old age and the imaginative and spiritual work required to remain a vital individual even when the heart is 'fastened to a dying animal'.

* his solution to the agony is to leave the country of the young and travel to Byzantium, where the sages in the city’s famous gold mosaics could become the 'singing-masters' of his soul.

* an expression of his hopes that the sages will appear in fire and take him away from his body into an existence outside time, where, like a great work of art, he could exist in 'the artifice of eternity.'

* his declaration that once he is out of his body he will never again appear in the form of a natural thing; rather, he will become a golden bird, sitting on a golden tree, singing of the past, 'what is past', the present, that which is 'passing' and the future, that which is 'to come'.

Yeats wrote in a draft script for a 1931 BBC broadcast:

'I am trying to write about the state of my soul, for it is right for an old man to make his soul, and some of my thoughts about that subject I have put into a poem called 'Sailing to Byzantium'. When Irishmen were illuminating the Book of Kells, and making the jeweled croziers in the National Museum, Byzantium was the centre of European civilization and the source of its spiritual philosophy, so I symbolize the search for the spiritual life by a journey to that city.'

Bosco Hogan reads the poem :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu3p6CxGlMs

I
That is no country for old men. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees
---Those dying generations---at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unaging intellect.

II
An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.

III
O sages standing in God's holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.

IV
Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.

Britain is a country which says "Happy Birthday" to an old singer called Noddy Holder, Greece to Demis Roussos and France to Johnny Haliday

Neville John "Noddy" Holder best known as the lead vocalist, guitarist and occasional bass guitarist with the rock band 'Slade' is 65 today.

Things you probably didn't know about Noddy, that he :

* was born the son of a window cleaner in the Caldmore area, near Walsall town centre, but moved to the Beechdale Council Estate in the north of the town as a child during the 1950s.

* went to the new 'T. P. Riley Comprehensive School' in Bloxwich in the West Midlands and at the age 0f 13 formed a group called 'The Rockin' Phantoms' with school friends.

* later turned professional with 'Steve Brett & the Mavericks' and then joined 'The
In Betweens' which went on to become 'Slade' one of Britain's top selling rock bands to date.
Come On Feel the Noize :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXkxNei8aZ0

* is best remembered for the single "Merry Xmas Everybody" written by Noddy and Jim Lea and made in 1973, it has remained seasonally popular to the extent that 'Christmas would not be Christmas' in Britain without it being played :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A8KT365wlA



P.S. Greece says "Happy Birthday" to Demis Roussos who is 64 today.

Demis singing : Goodbye My Love, Goodbye :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nZKMm-nOsc

France says "Happy Birthday" to Johnny Haliday who is 68 today.

Johnny singing : Blueberry Hill :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQNXz7DV7rQ

Britain is no country for old men who are the victims of inflation

Britain's rate of inflation


An article in the 'Daily Mail' today was entitled :
Elderly are hardest hit inflation victims... and it's set to soar even higher in coming months

It made the following points,that :

* pensioners are being crippled by a higher rate of inflation with them typically battling an annual rise in the cost of living of 4.6% which is 0.1% above the Consumer Price Index.

* experts warn that this would rise even further over the next few months because of hikes in gas and electricity prices.

* this compares to a ‘real’ inflation rate of either just 2.9% a year for the young, or an average for all age groups of 3.5%.

* pensioners are badly hit by rising fuel bills, which have doubled in a decade forcing many to cut back on their heating because they simply cannot afford to stay warm.

Ros Altmann, Chief Executive of Saga said : "It is so damaging for someone on fixed incomes when prices rise at this rate. Every year, they can afford to buy less and less." She predicts that inflation for pensioners will rise to 6% within months.

A recent Saga report found that more than 60% of people over the age of 50 said their lifestyle had ‘crashed’ over the past year. It warned their lifestyle was being crippled by the toxic combination of the high cost of living, record petrol prices, tax hikes and poor pay rises.

Britain, no country for old men in Southern Cross Care Homes, have a champion in a single, lowly care worker called Helen Ewan

It's a worrying time for thousands of old men in Southern Cross care homes, Britain's largest private provider with 30,000 men and women in 750 homes.

Why?

The latest half-year results show the company made a loss of £311m and there are fears that it may go bust unless it can come to an urgent agreement with its landlords to restructure rent payments.

What happens if Southern Cross goes bust?

Bankruptcy could potentially leave thousands of residents, many of them old and vulnerable, either with nowhere to live or forced into a disruptive move to alternative accommodation.
How did this happen?

A series of complex financial deals have left Southern Cross unable to pay rent demands to the landlords who own its properties. Some commentators have called it the social care sector's version of the 'dotcom boom' or the 'credit crunch'.

What will the Government do?

So far ministers have said they will not get involved, despite suggestions that they might have to bail out Southern Cross and effectively nationalise it, in the way they rescued UK banks after the financial crash.

Will local authorities intervene?

Councils have a statutory duty to house and provide care for residents which they fund, but not for those that pay for their own care.

Is Southern Cross a one-off?

It is certainly the biggest potential casualty, but many other private providers in the social care residential sector are feeling the pinch as revenues drop.

What does this mean for social care?

The Southern Cross crisis will trigger a debate on how we provide and pay for the increasing numbers of old people who require care at a time when spending cuts are reducing the available resources.

A BBC report :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13734566


Care worker, Helen Ewan, described the impact on residents at Southern Cross at the recent GMB Conference and spells out the issues simply and sincerely and therefore more eloquently than any politician :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8uKQTHxlk8

The 'Mirror' newspaper got it right when it said :

'Her voice was gentle and, at 5ft 4in, her head just made it above the podium – but her powerful words carried a terrifying message: Close care homes and our elderly will die.

Care worker Helen Ewan’s speech laid bare the devastating human impact of the financial mess at Southern Cross care homes.

Once Helen had finished her address, the assembled crowd stood to give her a standing ovation'.

Helen, as reported in the 'Mirror' :
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/06/11/southern-cross-care-homes-workers-blow-the-whistle-of-true-impact-of-devastating-cuts-115875-23193510/

Britain said "Happy Birthday" to a Duke from the Danish-German House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg going under the name of 'Edinburgh'

Prince Philip who has been the 'Queen's Consort' since 1947, the year I was born, was 90 years old yesterday.

An article by Tom Utley in 'The Daily Mail' gave a flavour of this man. It was entitled :
I'm not completely besotted but a visit to a Bethnal Green basement won me over to today's royal birthday boy.

It went on to say that for all his apparent blunders, he should be respected and
Tom made the following points about the Duke, that :

* he first saw him at close quarters more than ten years ago, visiting a drug rehabilitation centre run by a charity in the East End of London.

* he was meeting a handful of social workers and a couple of recovering addicts, squashed into two tiny rooms in the basement of a dilapidated shop.

* nothing much newsworthy was likely to come of it, but he,(Tom)had been sent along with my notebook simply on the off-chance that the royal visitor, would make one of his celebrated 'gaffes'.

* like him, they were expecting the cartoon character depicted in the tabloids: arrogant, cantankerous and impatient with political correctness to the borderline of racism.

* where drug addiction was concerned, they imagined that he would belong firmly to the cold showers and ‘pull yerself together, man’ school of rehabilitation.

* he didn't succeed in turning these Left-leaning community workers into flag-waving royalists but he convinced them he was genuinely interested in their work, knew a great deal about treating addiction and about government policy on the matter and was determined to give them all the practical help he could. If it was an act, it was an extremely good one.

* above all, he left them believing their work was important and hugely appreciated.

* aside from his faults he has virtues in abundance : boundless energy, good humour, stoicism, a keen interest in other people and an unfailing sense of duty, which, he (Tom), reckoned, far outweighed his failings.

His gaffes are endearing :

* On Madonna :
After being told that Madonna was singing the Die Another Day theme in 2002:
“Are we going to need ear plugs?”

* To Simon Kelner, republican editor of 'The Independent', at Windsor Castle reception:
“What are you doing here?”
“I was invited, sir.”
“Well, you didn’t have to come.”

* To female sea cadet last year:
“Do you work in a strip club?”

* To expats in Abu Dhabi last year:
“Are you running away from something?”

* After accepting a conservation award in Thailand in 1991:
“Your country is one of the most notorious centres of trading in endangered species.”

* To President of Nigeria, who was in national dress, 2003:
“You look like you’re ready for bed!”

* His description of Beijing, during a visit there in 1986:
“Ghastly.”

* To a tourist in Budapest in 1993:
“You can’t have been here long, you haven’t got a pot belly.”

* To a British trekker in Papua New Guinea, 1998:
“You managed not to get eaten then?”

* Using Hitler’s title to address German Chancellor Helmut Kohl in 1997, he called him:
“Reichskanzler.”

* On the new £18 million British Embassy in Berlin in 2000: “It’s a vast waste of space.”

* On Tom Jones, 1969:
“It’s difficult to see how it’s possible to become immensely valuable by singing what are the most hideous songs.”

* To Cayman Islanders:
“Aren’t most of you descended from pirates?”

* To Elton John on his gold Aston Martin in 2001:
“Oh, it’s you that owns that ghastly car, is it?”

BBC News on his birthday :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13731474

More gaffes :
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/royal-wedding/2011/06/10/prince-philip-quotes-relive-90-classic-gaffes-to-mark-his-90th-birthday-115875-23191024/

His Wedding in 1947 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKnyzWAkmAc

Britain is a country whose old men say "Happy Birthday" to Julie Driscoll whose beauty beguiled them when they were young men

Julie Driscoll, singer and actress, known for her 1960's versions of Bob Dylan's 'This Wheel's on Fire', and Donovan's 'Season of the Witch', which she sang with 'Brian Auger & The Trinity' is 10 days older than me and 64 today.

Things you possible didn't know about Julie, that she :

* as a teen, oversaw 'The Yardbirds Fan Club', where the group's manager encouraged her to begin a performing career of her own.


* in 1963, issued her debut pop single 'Take Me by the Hand' and 2 years later joined the short-lived R&B combo 'Steampacket' alongside Rod Stewart, Long John Baldry and organist Brian Auger.


* next signed on with the 'Brian Auger Trinity', scoring a Top Five UK hit in 1968 with their rendition of Bob Dylan's 'This Wheel's on Fire'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJZ435EAPco&feature=related

* with her striking looks and coolly sophisticated vocals earned, was dubbed 'The Face' by the British music press.















* recorded 'Save Me' in 1967 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl8coZUKCtM

* 'Season of the Witch' in 1968 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpizS9h-1Xk&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=AVGxdCwVVULXdyu8iycbdxo18Ipfy1AzFe

* 'Indian Rope Man' in 1969 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S97ISWZsRBw

* left Auger for a solo career and debut album 1969 heralded a shift away from pop, enlisting members of the 'Soft Machine' and 'Blossom Toes' to pursue a progressive jazz direction.

* with her 1974 'Sunset Glow', she further explored improvisational vocal techniques in settings ranging from folk to free jazz.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNuWixvH-10

Britain is still a country for an old fantasy writer called Terry Pratchett but only as long as he wants it to be

Sir Terry Pratchett who is 63, has early-onset Alzheimer’s disease and has said that when his own time comes to die, he would like to be sitting on a chair on the lawn at his home, with a brandy in one hand and a glass of life-ending chemicals in the other. "And with Thomas Tallis on my iPod, I would shake hands with Death."

Terry has made a documentary for the B.B.C. called 'Choosing to Die' about the subject of assisted dying and travelled to Switzerland to film the final moments of Peter, a British man suffering from motor neurone disease, who had chosen to end his life at the Dignitas Clinic.

Terry said that he felt as if he was "spinning" in the moments after Peter's death. "Something was saying, 'A man is dead … that's a bad thing,' but … he had an incurable disease that was dragging him down, so he's decided of his own free will to leave before he was dragged. So it's not a bad thing, it is a good thing, I think, that in those circumstances Peter got what he wanted – a good death."

Terry's film which also focuses on the cases of two other men facing similar choices, is likely to reopen the debate over the legal and moral constraints on assisted dying and he will be glad if it does.

He backs assisted death : "because if someone knows they can die when they want to, they can treasure every day. They can think, 'The grandchildren are coming over tomorrow' or 'It's nearly Christmas so I'll leave it till the new year … it's a bit painful but we can hang in there.' So someone is doing an incredibly human thing, something that no animal can ever do – actually controlling, if not forestalling, their own death – and getting some pride out of that, I suspect."

In a Richard Dimbleby lecture last year he said, with his friend Tony Robinson reading his words :
"If I knew that I could die at any time I wanted,then suddenly every day would be as precious as a million pounds. If I knew that I could die, I would live. My life, my death, my choice."


A brave and dignified Terry talking about his Alzheimer's disease :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z44ip5kYQ8w

Britain is a country where old rock star singer-actor called David Essex can reinvent himself as old tv soap star in 'EastEnders' called Eddie Moon

David Essex, is like me, an old London Boy and like me is 64 this year, he being 6 weeks younger than me. David, the old rocker form the 1970's, has just reinvented himself as a character in the long running tv soap, 'EastEnders'.

What you possible didn't know about David, that he :

* was born David Albert Cook in Plaistow, where his father was an East End dock worker and his mother, a self-taught pianist and Irish Traveller.

* was, as a boy, a member of 'West Ham United Juniors Football Club' and dreamed of being a professional player and also became interested in music and played drums with a local band before becoming a singer.

* his first notable acting role was the lead in the stage musical, 'Godspell', where I saw him on the London stage in 1971 at the age of 23.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PrqIuchd0s

* in 1973 starred in the film 'That'll Be The Day' and recorded his only international hit single, the self penned "Rock On", which sold over one million copies.
Rock On :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgcYfKw0_TI

With the late Adam Faith and late Keith Moon :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmQc4Td2lVI

* had two number one singles with : 'Gonna Make You a Star' in 1974

and 'Hold Me Close' in 1975 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G2lqY3Nuk0

* also appeared in 'Stardust', a 1974 sequel to 'That'll Be The Day' :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0agwWPljY0

* in 1976 starred in the film 'Silver Dream Racer' and had the soundtrack song as another Top 10 hit in the UK Singles Chart.

* performed 'Here Comes the Night' on 'Top of the Pops' in 1995 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0R_CkO8Pb0M

* in 2010, at the age of 63 and a grandfather-of-three, married the actress Susan Hallam-Wright who was 26 years his junior.

* was initially due to join the cast of the tv soap opera, 'EastEnders, in 2006, and has now finally joined the cast as Eddie Moon, with his first appearance in June 2011.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zq3SKrzTig

Britain is a country where old men, clambered over by naked young men at Sadler's Wells, remember 'Oh Calcutta' when they were young men

I counted 10 old bald or grey haired men in this photo and deduced that this was an audience of many old men. They were seated at Sadlers Wells, watching 'Un Peu de Tendresse Bordel de Merde' and young naked men were clambering over them.

The Guardian newpaper tells me, that :

* it features 20 dancers, often naked, at times rolling and twisting onstage, at other times dressed only in blond wigs and clambering into the audience to sit on their laps, spit, mock-masturbate or waggle their genitals in their faces.

* the Daily Telegraph critic wrote : 'Repellently, self-indulgently dreary … an unforgiveable 100 minutes.'

* the Observer critic said : 'Risibly bad choreography, pretentious text, boorish psuedo-'boundary-breaking' sexual antics, talentless performers.'

* the Guardian's Judith Mackrell acknowledged flaws but she found the conclusion a 'redemptive and astonishing coup de théâtre'.

* the choreographer, has declared his aim of 'pushing boundaries in contemporary dance'.

I was reminded of, 'Oh! Calcutta!' which consisted of sketches on sex-related topics, debuted Off-Broadway in 1969 and then in London in 1970 where it ran for over 3,900 performances.

The show sparked considerable controversy at the time, because it featured extended scenes of total nudity, both male and female. The title is taken from a painting by Clovis Trouille, itself a pun on "O quel cul t'as!" French for "What an arse you have!".



P.S.
Among the cast of 10, who stripped naked in the opening scene to the tune of Oh! Calcutta!, was Anthony Booth, now better known as ex-Prime Minister, Tony Blair's father-in-law.

What a funny old country Britain is.

P.P.S.
The poster shows the painting by Clovis with a red drape, absent in the original, and no doubt added in the interest of what used to be called 'good taste'.

Britain is a country where yesterday's violent young 'mods' from the 1960's have become today's peaceful old 'scooterists'

At a cafe on Watling Street just outside of Rainham in Kent last Sunday I found a swarm of assembled old mods with their lambretta and vespa scooters in the carpark. It was a bit like entering a time warp and took me back to the time when I was an 18 year old student in Brighton in the 1960's when there were fights between 'mods' and 'rockers' on the beach.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx7l0dmodlU

The film i979 film, 'Quadrophenia', was loosely based around the 1973 rock opera of the same name by The Who.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfUNQ91tbGI&feature=related

'Sting' as The Ace Face :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bi5IsOqLOi8

A bit of research revealed that : Old Mods never die, they turn into 'Scooterists'.

Apparently :

* over recent years their number has been growing, national and regional clubs springing up to cater for them and there are magazines, websites and scooter rallies where thousands of them gather, usually by the sea, to admire each other's machines.


* the largest rally is held on the Isle of Wight, where thousands meet over the August bank holiday to the hum of two-stroke engines and everyone parks up along the esplanade to drink, chat and watch the world go by.

* Tori Joy, one of the event organisers has said :
"I think the people are different now. Some of them were Mods in the Sixties or Eighties and have now got families but are back into it. Some of them are the kids of Mods who have got their first scooter. The guy that led the ride-out this year was over 70."

Two Mod bands of the 1960's were :

The Who with "I Can't Explain" :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uFcPjILC7k&feature=related

And.....

The Small Faces with "Sha La La La Lee" :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcosDZ5oAyM&feature=related

Britain is no longer a country for an old photographer called E.Hamilton West

E Hamilton West, photographer with the 'Guardian' for 26 years, whose career spanned glass plate and digital has died at the age 78.

Things you possible didn't know about Ted, that he :

* was born in South London where his father died before his birth and his mother, Marie, later married Horace Hamilton.

^ The Second World War Blitz disrupted Ted's education at Haberdashers' Aske's School, and, after several near misses, he was evacuated.

* had dreams of becoming a journalist and, at the age of 15, took a job as a messenger on the 'London Evening Standard' and then moved on to become a darkroom assistant.

* in 1962, began working for the tough and demanding John Lacey at Central Press Photos and worked with the more experienced Denis Aulds, from whom he learned about straightforwardness and simplicity and the experience of these agency days never left him and informed his sense that you only needed one picture to tell a story.

* in 1970, started working for 'The Guardian' where one of his earliest assignments was the scene of a suspected car bomb in Whitehall and as he raised his camera, the bomb exploded and his first picture was a blur but the second caught the blast perfectly.

* produced a fine series on expelled Ugandan Asians as they arrived in Britain in 1972.

* always dressed in a sports jacket and was known for his catchphrases : "You're only as good as your last picture".

Abba, left to right, Benny Andersson, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Agnetha Fältskog and Björn Ulvaeus, in London, 1978.


The actor Sir Ralph Richardson on his way to a tree-planting event in Hyde Park, London, 1976.




The politician Willie Whitelaw visiting the creche at the Conservative Young Women's Conference, 1978.













A skinhead on Brighton beach in 1971.
















HMS Hermes leaving Portsmouth as part of the Falkland islands task force, 1982.






The broadcaster Johnny Morris launching an RSPCA fundraising campaign, 1987.

Britain says "Happy Birthday" to old thespians, Brian Cox, Robert Powell and Jonathan Pryce

Brian Cox, Scottish actor, 65 today, is known for his work with the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he gained recognition for his portrayal of King Lear and Hollywood productions playing parts such as Dr. Guggenheim in 'Rushmore' and William Stryker in 'X2' and was the first actor to portray Hannibal Lecter on film in 'Manhunter'.

Brian teaching Hamlet to a 2 year old. Delightful !
http://www.thatvideosite.com/video/actor_brian_cox_teaches_hamlet_to_a_2_year_old

As Hannibal Lecter :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USNWRCi1Npg

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Robert Powell, English actor, is 67 today is best known for his title role in 'Jesus of Nazareth' in 1977 but also the fictional secret agent Richard Hannay, his role as Mark Williams in 'Holby City' and in the sitcom 'The Detectives' alongside Jasper Carrott.

As Jesus of Nazareth :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw3zMXCTnuA&feature=related

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Jonathan Pryce, Welsh actor, also 65 today has featured in big-budget films such as 'Evita', 'Tomorrow Never Dies', 'Pirates of the Caribbean and The New World', as well as 'Glengarry Glen Ross' and 'Carrington'.

Singing 'The American Dream' in Miss Saigon :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=010jO4_Bs9k&feature=related