This is Northumberland Calling 1.03.24

The Warning this contains obscure and archaic words edition

Hello America (particularly Central Ohio), this is Northumberland calling

Happy St David’s Day – St David is the patron saint of Wales. ‘Do ye the little things in life’ or "Gwnewch y pethau bychain mewn bywyd" is a Welsh phrase attributed to his final sermon. Daffodils and leeks are associated with him.

Breaking news: Due to vagaries of the British parliamentary system, the Rochdale by election return George Galloway, showman, known supporter of various regimes which are hostile to the West and someone who has held parliamentary seats in five constituencies with a number of parties. The Labour candidate was disqualified for antisemitism, but Galloway has said far worse. He wants a one state solution for the Israel-Palestine conflict which is based on ‘democracy’ and spells an end to the ‘Zionist Project’. The British National Party urged its supporters to vote for him. Enough said.  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/03/01/gorgeous-george-galloway-mp-rochdale-left-wing-profile/ or https://archive.is/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/03/01/gorgeous-george-galloway-mp-rochdale-left-wing-profile/

Language developed to allow human beings to communicate with each other. All animals communicate within their own species. Some are able after a fashion to communicate with other species (see cats and dogs for example), but human language has developed to allow human beings to efficiently communicate.  When meanings are obscured or altered, miscommunication happens. Sometimes words like ‘factoid’ have different meanings depending on where in the world you live. A factoid in the UK means something which appears to be true but is actually false (think ivy kills trees as a factoid which has been believed since Piny). In North America, a factoid is a trivial piece of true information.

Some words become offensive and rightly fall out of use such as Hottentot which  refers to  Khoikhoi people of Namibia and South Africa. It originated from the Dutch Afrikaans. For many years, it was not considered offensive. Indeed, my Webster’s from the 1980s does not list as offensive. By the early 2000’s, the OED was listing as such.  Because it is used by the Admiral in Mary Poppins to describe the Banks children after they go up the chimney and are covered in soot,(blink and you miss it)  Mary Poppins now has a PG rating in the UK if shown at the cinema. A U rating remains on the home viewing.  No mention is made of the crimes against Cockneys for Dick Van Dyke’s lamentable accent. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/children-dont-need-permission-for-a-spoonful-of-sugar-06dxz5336 or https://archive.is/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/children-dont-need-permission-for-a-spoonful-of-sugar-06dxz5336

 Another word causing difficulty this week was ‘woman’, specifically the Scarlett Blake cat-killer case. Scarlett Blake is a male who identifies as a woman (no word on any Gender Recognition Certificate). Blake also infamously tortured a cat as well as attacking and killing a random stranger. Most of the news coverage initially referred to Blake as a woman and used the pronouns ‘she’. As JK Rowling pointed out  -- these are not female crimes and listing them as such distorts the crime figures. Blake will be remanded to a male prison but the police said that the crime would be recorded as female. Sunak said that this was wrong. The data that shows JK Rowling is correct (telegraph.co.uk) or https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/29/men-commit-more-crimes-than-women-data-jk-rowling/:

The BBC has upheld a complaint against Jeremy Vine as he referred to trans women as being male. The BBC capture by GI appears total. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/29/bbc-justin-webb-broke-impartiality-rules-trans-women-males/ or https://archive.is/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/29/bbc-justin-webb-broke-impartiality-rules-trans-women-males/

However the BBC this morning decided to not mention of the pronouns of the trans identified male prisoner who just died in Scottish prison – Tiffany Scott (aka Andrew Burns) . Scott was known as one of the most violent prisoners in Scotland but wanted to be moved to the female estate. This move was blocked after the Bryson outcry.  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-68442073

What is Islamophobia (a word coined in 1997) also occupied many column inches, partly because the  whip was removed from Lee Anderson, a Conservative MP who accused Sadiq Khan of being the thrall of Islamists and having them as mates. What he said was very clumsy, something which Anderson admits but has refused to apologised for.  The current definition of Islamophobia which has been adopted by most of the political parties (but not the Government) includes certain historical inaccuracies such as it is apparently Islamophobic to mention that Muslims at certain times used conquest to force conversion. It has been pointed out that any adoption of this by the Government would lead to blasphemy laws by the back door. People must be able to criticise a religion or indeed state historical facts. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/02/28/labour-shamelessly-weaponised-claims-of-islamophobia/ or https://archive.is/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/02/28/labour-shamelessly-weaponised-claims-of-islamophobia/

This op ed also explains: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-damage-to-our-civil-society-is-what-should-worry-us-most-nk0dn2cmg or https://archive.is/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-damage-to-our-civil-society-is-what-should-worry-us-most-nk0dn2cmg

Sunak has stated that the police must do more to prevent ‘mobs’ from trying to intimidate people. Mob rule is the anti-thesis of democracy. James Cleverly the Home Secretary said that the Pro=Palestinian marchers had made their point. This weekend is apparently an off weekend for the pro-Hamas marches, they are going to occupy Barclay bank instead. It remains to be seen what the police will do about it (if anything). https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/pro-palestine-protest-london-gaza-march-w0xlfb682 or https://archive.is/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/pro-palestine-protest-london-gaza-march-w0xlfb682

Neo-segregation lives in British theatre as a US play Slave Play comes to the West End. The playwright (to drum up ticket sales?) announced 2 performances would be ‘Black Only’  and thus would be by invitation only. It has been pointed out that the Racial Discrimination Act 1965 is supposed to prevent such behaviour and it could be why the performances are being by ‘invitation only’.  The UK government has rightly said that any theatre in receipt of government funds should not be indulging in that type of racially segregated behaviour.  This op ed is very good on the subject. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/29/new-woke-segregation-insult-to-white-and-black-people/ or https://archive.is/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/29/new-woke-segregation-insult-to-white-and-black-people/

Fabric and sewing is an interest so I found this article fascinating about the last silk velvet manufacture in Venice. The company Bevilacqua has been going since the 15th century (owned by the Bevilacqua family) and still produces some of the world’s most expensive fabric including for places like the Kremlin and China. You can understand why when the manufacturing process is explained. In Roman times, silk used to be worth more than its weight in gold and silk velvet still is. An employee of the firm ,Jacquard (for whom the Jacquard pattern is named) invented the system of cardboard punching to determine the pattern. This innovation later directly led to the computer punch cards. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bevilacqua-velvet-venice-times-luxury-0x8krqblt or https://archive.is/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bevilacqua-velvet-venice-times-luxury-0x8krqblt

Hardy 31 March 2009 - 16 Feb 2024

Here -- I picked up the ashes of our collie, Hardy. Old age comes for us all in the end and sadly, it came for him. He was nearly 15 and had had a good life. He had a series of strokes which resulted in him finally  becoming completely incontinent. He had also stopped eating. It would have been cruel to allow him to suffer and thus decision was made on the 16^th.  The vet was brilliant about it and explained really there was no other option given his other ailments. A huge hole but my life is far richer for his having been in it. I want to make sure Paddy is well trained before adding another dog to the mix, but I love having canine (and feline) companions. NB Hardy’s sister was named Tess and thus you can tell which author he was named after…

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