Archive for May, 2010

Steam Fairs

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

What is it about Steam? Steam trains (or engines – the carriages are the ‘train’ I’m told), tractors, steam rollers….anything powered by coal fires and water seems to make grown men go weak at the knees. Maybe its because its such a visible sort of power and requires such manly activity (stoking fires greasing joints) to make it all happen.

Well if this is your thing there is no shortage of opportunities to get up close to steam powered vehicles. This weekend for instance there is the Vintage Vehicle Rally at Southwick in Wiltshire. If you can’t make, this one consult the Annual Guide to UK Steam Fairs.

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Wild Life Britain – Puffins

Friday, May 21st, 2010

One of the cutest members of Britain’s migrant birds is the Puffin. They start to arrive in March and they leave by mid-August so now, while they are settled in their breeding colonies, is a good time to see them. They can be found in several spots around Britain. We have personally seen them on the Farne Islands off the Northumberland coast and the Isles of Scilly.

I have to confess to eating Puffin, not here but in Iceland. It was very expensive, tasted quite horrible (sort of fishy, gamey taste) and left me feeling guilty!

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British Reptiles

Friday, May 14th, 2010

I was reading the other day that the Nature Reserve on Brownsea Island in Dorset has all seven British Reptiles.
SEVEN! I got as far as the adder and the grass snake and ran out.

Is there anybody out there who knows the other 5?

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Constance Markievicz – the First Woman MP

Saturday, May 8th, 2010

As the election is still in my mind I thought I would write about this remarkable woman. In 1918 an act was passed allowing women to stand as Member of Parliament. Later that year Constance Markievicz became the first woman to be elected to the House of Commons at Westminster. However, as she was an Irish Nationalist and a member of Sinn Fein she didn’t take up her seat.

She was already a reknowned figure, having played an active part in the 1916 uprising. She only survived execution because she was a woman. In 1919 she was appointed Minister of Labour in the Dail Eireann, thus becoming the first female minister in a modern democracy.

Her families estate, Lissadell at Sligo, is privately owned but can be visited. The poet W.B.Yeats was a friend and frequent visitor.

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Election Day

Friday, May 7th, 2010

Today every person over the age of 18 (excepting those in prison) has the opportunity today to vote in a General Election. In Britain an election of the national government has to be held every 5 years or less.

We in Britain, and indeed throughout most of the World, accept this as a human right. Democracy has been around for a long time – the Greeks invented the word – and yet in Britain (as most other democracries at the time) the vote was restricted to those having adequate property and wealth, ie. around 10% of the male population until Victorian times. Even then, when electoral reform started, it took almost a hundered years to achieve universal suffrage.

A series of acts from 1832 onwards increased in steps the proportion of men allowed to vote, made ballots secret and generally improved the fairness of elections. In 1918 the electorate was extended to all men over the age of 21 and all married women over the age of 30, and finally in 1928 woman at last gained equality with men!

Posted in Did you know?, News | Comments Off

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