Gogwit's Blog

Ralph Vaughan Williams

In 1945 Katharine Thomson wrote to Ralph Vaughan Williams, a Cambridge friend of her father, and asked him if Clarion could perform excerpts from his opera ‘Sir John in Love’. She mentioned in particular one member of Clarion, a baritone called Martin Marshall. Vaughan Williams replied, saying “I would like to meet your baritone”.

In August, Katharine, Martin and his wife Elsie went to Vaughan Williams’ house in Dorking where he gave them a warm welcome. In the composer’s study, accompanied by him on the piano, Martin sang Vaughan Williams’ beautiful song ‘Silent Noon’.

‘Sir John in Love’ was first performed by Clarion in its entirety in March 1949 at the Birmingham and Midland Institute. The director was Tom Harrison, Regional Director of the Midlands Arts Council. The opera was conducted by Professor Anthony Lewis from the University of Birmingham.

from The Birmingham Post 19th March…

(satire?)

The announcement that the murder of a young British soldier in Woolwich was the work of men police believe were British-born Londoners sparked fears of a backlash against cockneys and eastenders yesterday.

As the direction of the  investigation became clear, a parallel operation was launched by police chiefs to brief community leaders in the capital and prepare for reprisal attacks on anyone expressing a liking for jellied eels or looking like they were born within the sound of Bow bells.

Police say that since Wednesday’s horrific events, police have recorded 30 hate crime incidents against the cockney and mockney community, including an attack on a man wearing an I ♥ London T-shirt and criminal damage to a pie and mash shop.

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Well it’s just as ridiculous as blaming all Muslims for the tragic events in Woolwich, isn’t it?

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Please feel free to comment – you don’t…

Our next meeting is on Saturday 1st June, location TBC. Facebook event here: http://www.facebook.com/events/153909298122508

Our first meeting, held on 11th May, was a great success. It was well attended by members of Birmingham Fems, Women’s Networking Hub, Birmingham DPAC, Black Activists Rising Against the Cuts, University of Birmingham Women’s Association – alongside a number of independent women. Come along to our second meeting where we’ll be discussing our campaign against the closure of numerous NHS walk-in centres around Birmingham – including the demonstration called on the 29th June.

We have a demonstration called for Saturday 29th June, 12pm at South Birmingham GP Walk-in Centre, against the closure of 7 NHS walk-in centres around Birmingham. Facebook event here: http://www.facebook.com/events/144723329047409

We want this protest to be family friendly! Weather permitting we will hold a picnic at Selly Oak Park following the demonstration – a short 8 minute walk away. Bring your kids…

(satire)

Outspoken former Conservative chairman Lord Tebbit has joined a growing chorus urging action to save the world’s endangered bee populations under threat from gay marriage saying it would pave the way for queens to become lesbians thereby endangering future colonies.

In an interview for the Big Issue, Lord Tebbit also claimed that legislation legalising gay marriage would pave the way for higher honey prices as bees spent less time and energy on making honey from nectar in order to concentrate more on making honey with each other.

Tebbit said that Downing Street had tried to push the legislation too quickly and had not properly considered what the full ramifications of allowing gay marriage might be for the future of English breakfasts:

I said to a minister: have you thought this through? Because you’re affecting the future of toast eating, too.

It’s time more decent people stood up against this insidious…

Dark matter, WIMPS, and NASA’s Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer data.

In which gizmag splashes some cold realism upon recent speculation…

I never realized how great times were when I was in school until after I graduated, had to pay bills and lived on my own.  Kids, if you’re reading this don’t be in a hurry to grow up it’s overrated as Hell!  You go through twelve years of school (well most of us), with the goal of preparing us for the ‘real world’ when we graduate, but is that really the case?  I can think of a few classes they need to add to really get us ready for LIFE:

It was announced yesterday that MPs could receive a 30% pay rise, seeing their wages rise £20,000 a year to £86,000.  Meanwhile, the average wage earner in the UK has seen their wages drop 20% in real terms since 2008. The government is certainly Making Work Pay…just not for 99% of the population.

The Wage Drop of the 99%

 

Increased access to personal debt (credit cards, loans, store cards, buy now pay later, hire purchase etc.) has been masking the expanding gulf between cost of living and wage inflation for decades.

In the ten years between 1999 and 2009, the annual salary rose 13.6%.  During the same period, house prices went up 130%, a loaf of bread went up 147%, and a litre of petrol went up 42%.  This goes some way to accounting for the fact that personal debt rose during this period…

Just for the record, on Saturday we held a good leaflet and petitioning session outside the old Central Library, informing people about Birmingham Labour’s plans to privatise the running of this £188 million public asset. To say that there was surprise and concern about this would be an understatement. Not one person we met supported what Labour intends to do. Hundreds of people have already signed up to our petition opposing their plans, but the campaign must go on. The public halting of the tendering process, the day after we publicised what was happening, is temporary; the overall plans have not yet been shelved. If you have not signed yet, go to the online petition below (see the post on 26th April), or print off a hard copy. Get it filled in and return it to us.

And on Sunday, there was a protest at ASDA’s in Kings Heath. This was about the…

Below is a link to download the Pay Policy Checklist issued by The NASUWT & NUT.

Despite attempts by the Secretary of State to claim that aspects of the joint checklist are unlawful, The NASUWT have rebutted his claims and stay on course to reach agreement and implement pay policies which meet all the requirements of the checklist.

After the Secretary of State’s third conference mauling, and another vote of no confidence, will we see some u-turns?

Pay Policy Checklist

Related articles

• Headteachers pass vote of no confidence in Government’s education policies (standard.co.uk)
• Michael Gove jeered and heckled by head teachers at hostile conference (mirror.co.uk)
• Teachers unite to challenge Gove (gogwit.wordpress.com)

Commenting on the publication of Ofsted’s framework for the inspection of local authority services, Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union, said:

“The starting point for the introduction of this framework appears to be based on an assumption that local authorities are underperforming.

“There is real risk of repeating the punitive and destructive inspection system we already have in schools which does little to support genuine improvement in our education system.

“The introduction of this inspection framework confirms what has been increasingly apparent over the last two years, that Ofsted is no longer an independent body operating in the public interest. It is now merely the Secretary of State’s hit squad.

“It would be understandable if the conclusion was drawn that Ofsted is now being used by the Secretary of State to settle political scores against those who have had the temerity to challenge or criticise his policies.

“This…