A Time for St George

It was good to be present at some of celebrations for England’s patron Saint, St. George. The main events in Birmingham took place on Saturday the 25th of April. More information from the Birmingham St. George's Day Association website. Of course the actual Saint’s day was Thursday 23rd of April, which points up the fact that St. George’s day is not an official national holiday - as in my view it most certainly should be - in England.
The 23rd of April 2009 marks both the death of St George in 303 and the 445th birthday of Shakespeare. St. George’s day was first celebrated in England in 1222. After 787 years we should make a holiday out of this! England - and for that matter the other parts of the United Kingdom - are ill-provided with public holidays in comparison with other countries which have more days devoted to nationhood and events of historical significance.
England has been given little to celebrate for some time - and has been little encouraged so to do. We should be able to celebrate Englishness without qualification or having to pay homage to larger entities to which we are, willy-nilly, attached.
And we should reclaim the noble English flag, the Cross of St. George, from certain hooligan elements - sporting or political - who have tried to appropriate it for their own undesirable purposes. And, as per the preceding posting on this site, we should make the flags in our own country! England has given so much to the world. Let’s give a little more to ourselves.

Birmingham’s Poet Laureate, Hall Green’s Chris Morgan, recently wrote two compositions on the theme of Saint George including the following which urges Saint George to intervene in dragon-like threats of a modern ilk...


Oh, St George, where are you now?
Come and slay our threatening dragons:
the dragon of bankruptcy and unemployment, the dragon of falling currency values,
the dragon of depressed demand for goods,
the dragon of recession in the housing market, the dragon of more expensive imports, the dragon of extreme weather events,
the dragon of a spying, interfering nanny state, the dragon of an Olympics we can't afford,
the arts being robbed to supply its golden hoard.
Oh, St George, where are you now?
Come and slay our threatening dragons!

Chris's page on the Birmingham Library website is at:

Birmingham Poet Laureate

There is yet more dragon-related activity - of a rather different kind - at this year’s Middle-earth Weekend to be held at at Sarehole Mill recreation ground, Hall Green, Birmingham, England on the weekend of May the 16th and 17th. The latest details can be obtained from the Shire Productions website

We hope to see you there!

Middle-earth Needs You!

Just in case you’re not a regular visitor to this blog, this year’s Middle Earth Weekend (which was previously known as the Tolkien Weekend) is being held on Saturday the 16th and Sunday the 17th of May 2009 on Sarehole Recreation Ground, by Sarehole Mill, Hall Green, Birmingham, England. This unique event is open to the public from 11am-5pm each day and there is no charge for entrance. If you are not familiar with it, this family event includes guided walks, performances by Shire Productions, historical re-enactments, craft stalls, troubadours, a farmers market, archery, children's activities, Tolkien archives, traditional craft demonstrations and much more in a very traditional atmosphere.
This event aims to promote the sites that inspired J.R.R. Tolkien, the world renowned writer of The Lord of the Rings - The Shire Country Park, being one such place. This is the tenth year of the event and it is organised by a committee of local people who feel very proud of their local area and want others to find out more about the green oasis they have on their doorstep. In fact people have travelled from all over the country - and even from across the world - to attend the event in previous years. We get around 10,000 visits over the weekend.
The planning and running of the event is carried out by local volunteers with support from the Shire Country Park Rangers, Libraries and Museum staff, but we could use a little more help on the weekend itself! Can you, or anyone you know, spare some time on Saturday 16th or Sunday 17th of May to help put on this fantastic event? We need bodies on the Saturday morning to help set up, tasks ranging from putting up signs, carrying materials around, directing exhibitors to their designated spots and also to steward the car park and marquees through the day.
Whatever your age or ability, if you would like to be a part of this marvellous community event and can offer just a couple of hours at any point during the weekend, it would be a real help. Refreshments and homemade cakes will be available for all the willing volunteers - along with an enormous sense of satisfaction from helping to prepare this ‘long expected party’!
If you do want to get involved in the Middle-earth Weekend, please contact Penny Marriott Assistant Ranger on 0121-702-2739 or Vivienne Wilkes on 0121-777-5974. A briefing meeting is held for the volunteers before the event so that you can find out what to expect. It’s a lot of fun and we hope to see you there!

Restoring The Constitution

On a recent visit to Boston (Mass) which, as ever, I enjoyed, I did however come across a couple of ominous signs of our times. The first sign may seem small to some, but in my view little things often show how deep a problem goes - like down at heel shoes. On a day off, we visited the USS Constitution in Charlestown Navy Yard. It is a very well preserved warship, currently being restored, built in 1797 and which defended American shipping in the Mediterranean and won an important battle in the War of 1812. Later, in the gift shop, I noted that the models of this emblematic ship were marked ‘Made in China’.
This experience echoed a similar one in England when I was trying to buy the English flag. The only ones I could get (having explained to various assistants that the Union Jack was not the English flag, which is the Cross of St George) were marked ‘Made in Taiwan’. These small matters show how deeply the spiritual decay of globalisation has set in, and what a threat to pride and identity is constituted by this wretched process. Would you not think that symbols of a nation should be made in that nation? The sadness is that many of our people, some in important positions, seem now to have little or no awareness of the importance of such matters.
The second sign was the threat that is faced by quality newspapers throughout most of the western world. Both in the UK and the US many papers are, in physical terms, shadows of their former selves. Changes of ownership in the UK have been followed by downgraded journalism. In the US several titles face severe problems. Included in this list is what in my view are the world’s greatest newspaper, The New York Times and its quality sister from the same stable The Boston Globe. I sincerely hope that both titles will overcome their difficulties and that their quality journalism will be preserved. Since I was in Boston, I wrote a short letter to The Globe as an expression of moral support. Here is what I wrote.
"A visit to the United States is always enriched by time spent with quality newspapers such as The Boston Globe and The New York Times. So I have been following with concern the financial difficulties you have been experiencing. May I express some international support? In a world where there is a marked coarsening of the written media (in the UK The Times of London has been ruined under Murdoch ownership) ways must be found to preserve quality journalism. Moving the cover price of the Globe up to one dollar would still give great value and could go along with a drive appealing to public-spirited buying with a slogan fit for the times (as it were). 'Save The Globe' would be highly appropriate in more senses than one."
Both the US and UK constitutions to operate properly depend on freedom of the press. For this to be meaningful there has to be a functioning fourth estate and a worthwhile press to be free. And in my view our constitutions should include a provision that national symbols are national copyright and should be made at home. All of our constitutions, including the temper of the people themselves, need to be restored. Perhaps out of the present crisis will emerge a determination to do just this. I for one certainly hope so.

Invisible and Incredible

Recently, for the first time in a long time, I heard someone use the term ‘invisible hand’ to describe the benign self-righting mechanism that the original political economists thought to be inherent in competitive markets. One thing that can be seen is that the fanciful hand has been more than usually invisible or else of course we do not have competitive markets.
Both are true in my view. Hidden hands are not only invisible but also insubstantial and totally incredible. Many ‘markets’ in these benighted days of globalisation act as loose cartels owing no loyalties save to mammon. They profit by taking advantage of credulous governments and politicians, such as many here in England, who witter on, textbooks in hand, about the equally non-existent ‘level playing fields’. This and the pure virtues of ‘free’ trade while other countries cheat with none-too-subtle trade restrictions and fiddled exchange rates, plundering our once proud industries as they go. What fools we were and what fools we continue to be.
The only ‘invisible hands’ were digging deep into less than invisible tills fishing out quantities of the nation’s money that would make a spectre blanche. What we need of course are very visible hands, not only bringing the discipline of regulation and a sizeable stick but the helping hand of direct intervention in the real economy. We either save what we’ve still got left or we lose that as well.
I have argued in other postings for Keynesian measures including taking advantage of the balanced budget multiplier effect including direct investment in physical assets. This along with ‘exemplar’ companies in co-operative or public ownership. Complaints that such organisations would ‘disrupt the market’ miss the point - that is exactly what they need to do.
One thing at least is clear, either we take our future into our own hands or we will have very little that is visible to hand on to future generations.

On 'Unsophisticated' Banking

As regular visitors to this blog will know, I am a very strong supporter of the re-establishment of the Birmingham Municipal Bank as a safe and trustworthy haven for the savings, small and large, of the people of the city and nearby areas.
The fundamental values of the Municipal Bank would exclude needless chopping and changing of frivolous financial ‘products’, slippery small print and the many other devices of the trickster. In such a bank, the simple principle of constancy would prevail. And in my view people throughout the country should be pressing their Local Authorities to introduce or re-introduce Municipal Banks for their areas too. There is opportunity amidst the present crisis - Tesco for one have plans to exploit it and make further inroads into consumer services. There is a clear gap in the ‘market’ for plain, honest, straightforward savings banks. The chance will not last forever.
The Chairman of the devastated Royal Bank of Scotland recently commented (of China’s immensely favourable financial position) "Sometimes there’s a value in being unsophisticated." There most certainly is, and western bankers should now know this better than anyone. But I suspect that they will find reform difficult and their old habits very hard to drop altogether. Incidentally, an old meaning of the word ‘sophisticated’ is ‘corrupt’ - which I think serves to underline the point.
Constancy and confidence were the values on which much of the true wealth of this country, much of it, alas, now cast to the winds, was built and which other institutions, such as the Municipal Banks and National Savings, sought to complement and support. Is it too much to suppose that these fundamental principles might be worth rediscovering and implementing today? They have not been lost by the majority of our population, but can be very hard to identify in the financial sector.
When the Birmingham Municipal Bank was first established in the early part of the last century, it faced significant opposition from the commercial banks. The tactic today from the various quarters (some council officers, the local press and some banks) opposed to the idea, seems to be to frighten the horses by waving around large numbers, which are claimed to represent costs, for which I for one have not seen hard evidence in support. They suggest or imply that commercial banks can provide any required service. The very same banks that, as one respectable developer told me recently had pulled out of financing eleven out of twelve viable projects. The developer was therefore having to look to foreign sources to progress developments that would create many jobs. And these are the very same banks that have taken the King’s shilling - or rather billions - are effectively owned by the public, but who are refusing to do their bit for the economy and the country that has sustained them.
They are not to be trusted, and despite the questionable opposition, I hope that enough of the City Council will be constant in finding a way forward for proposals that will once more offer ‘Security with Interest’ (the motto of the old Municipal Bank) and attract the trust of the citizens of Birmingham. Such a service is widely desired amongst ordinary, respectable, people. Perhaps if a courageous lead is given by Birmingham, there could be Local Authority led banks throughout the country. Having such ‘exemplars’ might force a change in the behaviour of commercial banks for the many years needed to bring in a new generation of ‘unsophisticated’ bankers who will not need enforcement to conduct their business in the public interest.

The Fluoride 'Debate'

It appears that the Government wants to see fluoride added to all drinking water in England. The Government is also talking about what it describes as ‘consultation’ on this very important matter. Consultation is a word that has been severely devalued by experience - post office closures being just one example. Nevertheless, I hope that in the case of possible mandatory fluoridation this is a genuine intention because fundamental issues are raised.
There is evidence, although it can be exaggerated out of all proportion, that fluoridation does have some impact on dental health, especially amongst those who habitually neglect their teeth. But those people who do look after their teeth will benefit much less on this account and will of course experience the downside. Decay rates have been improving across countries whether or not they add fluoride to their drinking water. There is a negative affect in terms of fluorosis (mottled teeth) and some research has suggested possible links to hip fractures and bladder cancer.
In Birmingham, fluoride has been added to our otherwise superb water since the 1960s. I do not recall that the people of the city were given any choice in the matter. Certainly there is no choice as things now stand, since the water filters that can be bought by the general public do not remove the fluoride, a fact of which many people are not aware and which by no co-incidence is not much publicised - nor often stated on the box.
The fluoride issue is an important example of population dosing, others being under consideration. I am concerned about this process not simply on the grounds of basic individual freedom (think also of the loss of same in our surveillance society) but also because, while experts are usually right, at least when they agree, when they turn out to be wrong the price that the public pays can be very high indeed. In my view there should be a fundamental human right not to be medicated by your government.
If there is to be a genuine public debate on fluoridation rather than the closely managed and selective ‘consultations’ that we have seen with post office closures and hospital closures, then I for one would welcome this in principle. But there are some important questions about any such public discussion. For example, what form would such a debate take? Who would judge its outcome? Would the Government take any notice anyway? And will those of us who already live in fluoridated areas be given a choice? On this last point I somehow doubt it.
As, I assume, we are not likely to have a referendum on this question, then at least there should be a professional and independent opinion poll that would carry a measure of public trust. More on the subject of fluoridation can be found on various websites including the Fluoride Action Network at http://www.fluoridealert.org/