Mike Vickers' Blog

June 9, 2019

The Guardian

Filed under: Communications, Journalism, Personal, Sustainability, World Class — derryvickers @ 6:58 am

The Guardian Newspaper – why I read it

As child in WW2 I was introduced to the Guardian at home because the only paper available from the local newsagent Was The Manchester Guardian; may be because we lived in Congleton not more than 25 miles from Manchester.

Anyway, the Guardian stuck to me and I have read it ever since. Even when I was abroad as a consultant there was the Guardian Weekly on the newsstand or failing that I could get it by post; the postal version used to be printed on very thin but durable paper; lovely!

I still get the Guardian Weekly posted to me even though I am back in Scotland.

And I cheat, I read the Guardian online daily, for which I feel honour bound to pay a quarterly subscription.

For those who do not know the background and the Policy of the (Manchester) Guardian just get a flavour by reading Katharine Viner’s (the editor) history at

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/16/a-mission-for-journalism-in-a-time-of-crisis

June 5, 2019

Britain must not turn its back on the world made possible by D-day

Filed under: Brexit, D Day, Europe, Personal, War — derryvickers @ 10:59 pm

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/05/britain-d-day-commemoration-trump-brexit-war

Martin Kettle

I cannot emphasise more clearly Kettle’s message

My primary school lessons were paused to hear a live broadcast from the landing on the D Day morning.

75 years in Europe without a major war. Brexit is at best an anachronism.

May 18, 2019

A Day in the Garden

Filed under: Gardening, Local Government, Personal — derryvickers @ 10:03 pm

To the two inevitables; Death and Taxes, add a third, Weeding.

Earlier this week I was at a meeting, at Castlebank Park in Lanark where the Aileen Campbell of the Scottish Government released a paper on Democracy Matters.
The Community has done wonders in re-establishing the gardens. They have also created a market garden, a real market garden where they grow a range of plants and vegetables for sale. I was intrigued that the growing benches are almost a metre high and I asked the workers why the height. They didn’t know but one thought for a while and said it was so much easier to work at the potting plants; and it was so obvious!

I have real experience after todays’ gardening as I have backache weeding and planting the borders!

April 27, 2019

New Sleeper – forget Brexit and arrive refreshed

Filed under: Brexit, Personal, Railways, Scotland, Travel — derryvickers @ 8:28 pm

This post is purely personal.

Scotrail, after months of work, have now got their Sleeper Fleet together and the first journey north is from Euston tomorrow evening.

The Sleeper is the way to travel for that full day’s meeting in London or Edinburgh or Glasgow. Forget the Red Eye flight where you have to turn up at the airport at 6 am. The sleeper gets you there in comfort by 8am in plenty of time for the 9am meeting. Some may say the journey is uncomfortable and I admit I occasional wake up going through Rugby when the train slows; sometimes it has even stopped for ½ hour so as not to arrive too early but that has been the exception. But the real benefit to me is that you can board the train at 11 pm and the new service offers 10am and just go to sleep and just sleep knowing that you will be at your destination on time effortlessly.

The new service offers full Scottish Breakfast rather than the current ‘packed breakfast’.

The service is extended to Fort William and Inverness during the Summer months; which means that you can enjoy crossing Rannoch Moor from the comfort of the buffet car and even an early dram ; and if you want you can travel on from Fort William to Mallaig and Skye on the steam hauled Jacobite. Alternatively, you can go to Skye via Kyle of Lochalsh via Inverness; not so, glamourous but beautiful scenery all the same, and over the highest mainline railway at Drumochter.

https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-pty-pty_extension&hsimp=yhs-pty_extension&hspart=pty&p=fort+william+to+mallaig+by+steam+train#id=1&vid=9dfef8efa0bf7896e073328f8d515555&action=click

Anyway, just get a flavour of the benefits of the new sleepers at:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/apr/27/london-scotland-revamped-train-sleeper-romance-revival

End of Personal Blog – Brexit free

April 24, 2019

The Last Supper Then and Now

Filed under: Climate Change, Greta Thunberg, History in the making, Jeremy Corbyn, Personal, Politics, Sustainability, UK Parliament — derryvickers @ 9:11 am

Leonardo's Last Supper

Greta Thunberg talking with Caroline Lucas and Jeremy Corbyn at the UK Parliament on 23 April 2019.

Greta Thunberg should be encouraged to speak to the UK Parliament as a whole.

In any case, if Trump is allowed to speak to the UK Parliament in June (and I hope Bercow succeeds again in stopping him) then Greta should be invited to follow immediately afterwards.

 

April 11, 2019

Scotsman: 11 April 2019

Filed under: Black Holes, Brexit, Knoydart, Land Ownership, Personal, Scotland, Travel — derryvickers @ 10:14 pm

In today’s Scotsman: 11 April 2019

  1. Of course, the simulated photo of the Black Hole in galaxy M87.
  2. Macron unhappy with Brexit being delayed risking EU Renaissance.
  3. Varadkar (Eire President) plugs for UK to remain in Customs Union with EU.
  4. Traffic linked to Asthma.
  5. The face of Bonnie Prince Charlie (doesn’t look that bonnie to me).
  6. Borders Rail trains overcrowded and often cancelled (I’m a train buff).
  7. Another story on the Derry Girls and how true to the life of the times they are. Good TV but a few times is enough.
  8. And in Real Homes an estate in Kilchoan Knoydart is up for sale for £5m.

Number 8 particularly interests me because it is adjacent to/ south of the Knoydart Foundation where we have good friends.

For the sales blurb on the Kilchoan Estate see https://www.onthemarket.com/details/6572192/

But to know more of the Knoydart Foundation go to http://www.knoydart-foundation.com/.  The main village of the Foundation can only be got to by boat from Mallaig.

The Kilchoan Estate is a Sporting Estate; I’m not a fan of Sporting Estates but I realise red deer need to be culled but I would rather it was for meal not for sport.

It would excellent if the Foundation could buy the Estate. I can but hope.

 

BTW today is yet another day when we didn’t leave the EU; I hope there will be many more.

April 8, 2019

Munch at the British Museum

Filed under: Munch, Painting, Personal — derryvickers @ 9:40 pm

Preface to the Munch Exhibition starting next week at the British Museum

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/mar/24/edvard-munch-radical-master-of-misery-and-menace-karl-ove-knausgaard–british-museum

Of course, there is a lot about the Scream. In the main article the Scream is stated as its own emojo.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/apr/08/primal-screams-edvard-munch-british-museum-norway

But to me, Much is much more than the Stream – he is the essence of the 21st century self-exploration and doubt. His woodcuts show a whole gamut of personal emotions – and he uses the same wood cut over and over again to explore so many feelings merely through change of colour and slight modifications rto the cuts.

These articles show only a little of Munch art in pictures/prints. If you have time go and see the exhibition.

If not, you can get some idea of his prodigious output at:

https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=AwrCmmvyvKtcuhEAIYMPxQt.;_ylu=X3oDMTByMjB0aG5zBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw–?p=Munch+art&fr=yhs-pty-pty_extension&hspart=pty&hsimp=yhs-pty_extension

But these clips do no real justice to the full-sized originals.

April 1, 2019

No April Fools Joke –

Filed under: Climate Change, Greta Thunberg, Personal, Politics, World Class — derryvickers @ 9:06 pm

I need to say no more other than ask you all to watch and do not then forget

Greta Thunberg

March 29, 2019

The Antipodes – Jacinda Arderns

Filed under: Brexit, History in the making, Personal, World Class — derryvickers @ 10:48 pm

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/29/jacinda-arderns-speech-at-christchurch-memorial-full-transcript

“And so to each of us as we go from here, we have work to do, but do not leave the job of combatting hate to the government alone. We each hold the power, in our words and in our actions, in our daily acts of kindness. Let that be the legacy of the 15th of March. To be the nation we believe ourselves to be.”

“To the global community who have joined us today, who reached out to embrace New Zealand, and our Muslim community, to all of those who have gathered here today, we say thank you.”

What more is there to say?

I make no apology for bringing the words of Jacinda Arderns to the fore again.

New Zealand is the Antipodes in more senses than one to what is happening in the UK now.

March 24, 2019

Music to make you forget Brexit – for just a while

Filed under: Brexit, Music, Personal, War — derryvickers @ 10:20 pm

A Weekend of Music

Friday: RSNO Three pieces.

  • A new commission by Paul Chihara, A Japanese, as a child in a relocation camp in the US during WW2. The piece was called A Matter of Honor. Music and Narration. The last narration finished with “when asked in 1942 if she believed that peace and freedom were possible anywhere in the world: “Yes, with all my heart, because in this faith, in that hope, is my future, and the world’s future”
  • Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Rachmaninov. The pianist was Olga Kern and required much stamina to be heard over the full orchestra which she did
  • Symphony No5 by Prokofiev. The ultimate antidote to Brexit.

How Rachmaninov and Prokofiev got by the Russian sensors in 1934 and 1942 is unclear to me as both were certainly not in the classical style of Brahms; much more ‘romantic’.

Saturday Scottish Opera performing Katya Kabanova by Janacek. The music to me is tremendous, the Scenery of based around the Volga with a bridge over was a construction to be marvelled at. All so much as to overawe the singing. Katya throws herself into the Volga at the end, not surprising as the possessive Mother in Law was demonic; not one to welcome home!

And today Sunday, a much more relaxed performance with Dvorak, Bartok and Strauss by the strings of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. The Strauss was Metamorphosen. One of his last pieces and one to let the music wash over you. It was written for 23 strings but the SCO managed very well with just 7. Strauss wrote it on the back of WW2.  Will see a Musician of his calibre to write similar music on the back of Brexit; we can only hope.

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