The Law Commission following in the footsteps of the Soviet Union's Stalinist authorities? A cautionary tale!

I came across this letter in The Week (November 14) which illustrates what may happen if the Law Commission’s proposals on hate speech come to pass.  And they say an Englishman’s home is his castle!

Lethal home truths.

To The Times

The Law Commission’s proposal to extend the jurisdiction of hate speech to private homes has unhappy parallels.  In 1932 Soviet, propaganda had it that a 13-year-old dedicated Young Pioneer, Pavlik Morozov, did the “right thing” by denouncing his father, Trofim, to the Stalinist authorities.  Trofim was said to have been executed as a result.  Members of Pavlik’s family, somewhat unhappy with this, then murdered the youth.  In turn they themselves were executed.  Pavlik was lauded in the USSR as a martyred hero, an example for Soviet youth to follow.

Michael Olizar, London.

Sunset over South Somerset.

Pleasing sunset this evening over Herne Hill on the fringe of Ilminster in South Somerset.

Sunset over Herne Hill in South Somerset on 25th November.

David Miliband, former Labour foreign secretary, has a salary four times higher than the Secretary-General of the UN.

These days I am very reluctant to give money to charities as it seems many of their CEOs are reported to earn six figure salaries.  So I was not surprised to read this story in a recent issue (November 7) of The Week magazine.  It certainly reinforces my disinclination to contribute to such institutions.

"Good week for David Miliband, the former foreign secretary, whose salary has soared to over $1m a year.  When Miliband became head of the New York-based aid charity the International Rescue Committee in 2013, he was paid $332,778. His new salary is four times higher than that of the Secretary-General of the UN."

Nice work if you can get it!

The war memorial in Watchet on the Somerset Coast.

 I visited the Somerset coastal town of Watchet back in the spring of 2018 and, while strolling around the harbour and esplanade, my wife and I came across a rather unique war memorial.  It stands by the wall of the public library, a building which was the town's lifeboat station until 1944.  The stone memorial is new and in the form of a structure representing sand bags.  It was unveiled on 28 June 2014. 

Originally Watchet had remembered its fallen by creating a recreation ground named the Memorial Ground.  It consisted of a sports pavilion and stand which was opened in July 1929.

The distinctive new memorial commemorates 42 men who were killed in World War One and 16 in World War Two. 

The war memorial in the Somerset coastal town of Watchet.

 

The loss of the armoured cruiser HMS GOOD HOPE at the Battle of Coronel. One of her crew is remembered in the village of Broadway, South Somerset.

As soon as war began in August 1914 Vice-Admiral Graf Von Spee’s Asiatic Cruiser Squadron, based in Tsingtau, about one hundred miles north of Shanghai, commenced a campaign of commerce raiding against British merchant shipping across the Pacific.  Von Spee’s squadron was built around two powerful modern armoured cruisers, SCHARNHORST and GNEISENAU, each armed with eight 8.2 inch and six 5.9 inch guns.

The Admiralty gave the task of intercepting the German commerce raiders to Rear Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock’s squadron which consisted of the old battleship HMS CANOPUS and the armoured cruisers HMS GOOD HOPE and HMS MONMOUTH, together with the light cruiser HMS GLASGOW and the armed liner HMS OTRANTO.

Cradock left The Falkland Islands in GOOD HOPE on the 22 October and sailed into the Pacific aiming to rendezvous with the rest of his squadron off the west coast of South America.  However, he left CANOPUS behind as she was suffering from engine problems.

On November 1^st 1914 Cradock’s squadron came upon Von Spee’s ships off the Chilean port of Coronel.  Cradock ordered the lightly armed OTRANTO to clear the area leaving GOOD HOPE, MONMOUTH and GLASGOW to engage Von-Spee’s two armoured cruisers and their accompanying light cruisers DRESDEN and LEIPZIG.  The two forces were not evenly matched.  The British ships mounted a total of four 9.2 inch, thirty two 6 inch and ten 4 inch guns compared to the German’s sixteen 8.2 inch, twelve 5.9 inch and twenty 4.1 inch guns.

Three hours after forming line of battle the action was over.  GOOD HOPE and MONMOUTH were overwhelmed and sunk with all hands; Cradock and 1600 men were lost.  GLASGOW escaped to fight Von Spee another day at the Battle of The Falklands.

One of those lost with GOOD HOPE was Able Seaman George Mattravers Stoker 1^st Class, the son of John and Eliza Mattravers of Broadway in South Somerset, he was aged 31.

Able Seaman Mattravers is remembered on a commemorative plaque in Broadway’s Church of St. Aldhelm and St. Eadburga, and on the village’s war memorial.  His name is also on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

The plaque inside the Church of St. Aldhelm and St. Eadburga at Broadway in South Somerset commemorating those who served 

Note.  The Commonwealth War Graves Commission spells Mattravers as Matravers.  I use the spelling Mattravers as it is used in Broadway’s village church and on its war memorial.  

Professor Vernon Bogdanor appears to support the balkanisation of England to save the Union. A letter in The Week.

In a letter which first appeared in The Times Professor Vernon Bogdanor  appears to support the balkanisation of England as a way of saving The Union.  It seems he is among those who believe in suppressing any political entity which exclusively represents English nationhood.

I reproduce below his letter to The Times which I came across in The Week (24 October).  I find it a disappointing read from someone so distinguished.  He gives powerful ammunition to those who argue against the establishment of an English parliament in order to discourage Scottish separatism and preserve the 1707 Union.

To The Times.

John Kampfner is right to call for further decentralisation “to the localities”, but an English parliament would not achieve this.  Whether situated in Manchester, Liverpool or York, it would appear just as remote to most as Westminster which would be reduced to a debating chamber for the discussion of foreign and defence policy and macro-economic management, while the quasi-federal UK which resulted would be so dominated by England as to be unbalanced, and an encouragement to Scottish separatism.  There is no democratic federation in the world in which one of the units represents more than 80% of the population. 

The right course is to build on the combined authorities with directly elected mayors by strengthening their powers, and by devolving on a similar basis to those areas of England outside the city regions.  That entails a unitary system of local government in those areas, as recommended more than 50 years ago by the Royal Commission on Local Government, in place of the present two-tier system.  That is the path that I hope the Government will follow in its forthcoming white paper.

 

Vernon Bogdanor, professor of government, KCL

A visit to the village of Wambrook in South Somerset, and its Church of St. Mary.

The village of Wambrook is tucked away in the Blackdown Hills 2 miles southwest of the town of Chard in South Somerset.  To find the village you have to explore the narrow tree-lined country lanes off the A30 – the main road which climbs steadily out of Chard into the foothills of the Blackdowns.

My wife and I, after visiting The Barleymow Farm Shop on the A30, took several wrong turns before finding the village.  It seemed to consist of scattered homes straggling along an undulating country lane, and we could find nowhere convenient to stop until we came to its Church of St. Mary.

The Church of St. Mary in the South Somerset village of Wambrook.

Arthur Mee in his The King’s England, Somerset (Hodder and Stoughton Ltd., 1968) informs us that: “In 1896 this village was transferred from Dorset to Somerset.  The little medieval church has rounded doorways and a font of the thirteenth century, bench ends carved 400 years ago, an Elizabethan chalice engraved with its price of 35 shillings, and a gallery at the back for the ringers of three ancient bells.”  However, the Wambrook parish church website states there are 5 bells in the tower!  The Church is built of Ham stone rubble and ashlar dressing, and it is thought the original roof was thatched.*  

On entering the churchyard the first thing which caught our eye was the seventeenth century set of stocks beside the wall of the church.  We followed the footpath through the churchyard and into a field.  We didn’t venture further as the going become steeper, but we could look down toward a brook and across the wooded valley. On the opposite side of the wooded valley we could see a large building which we later discovered to be the Cotley Inn.

Seventeenth century stocks beside the Church of St. Mary in Wambrook, South Somerset.

Retracing our steps through the churchyard we noticed the Commonwealth War Grave of Private W. J. Larcombe who was serving in the Royal Army Veterinary Corps when he died on 10 July 1944 aged 24.  He was the son of Charles Victor and Emily Caroline Larcombe, and husband of Louisa Elizabeth Larcombe of Islington, London.

Nearby was another headstone, that of Walter George Pidgeon. The headstone also commemorated the passing of “our dear boys”.  One of them, Sidney John Pidgeon, died at the early age of 16.  The other, Walter Frank Pidgeon, died of wounds on 24 February 1945 in Myanmar (formerly Burma) while serving as a private in the Second Battalion, King’s Own Scottish Borderers.  It seems he may have been wounded when the KOSB took part in the successful assault on Japanese positions on the Irrawaddy line in early 1945.  He is at rest in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s Tuakkyan  War Cemetery in Myanmar. His wife, Viola Beatrice Rosalind Pidgeon was from Chard, Somerset.

Gravestone commemorating members of the Pidgeon family in the Church of St. Mary in Wambrook, South Somerset.

The tower of St. Mary's Church in the village of Wambrook, South Somerset.

We returned to the car and drove on into the valley and up the other side past the Cotley Inn.  After more twists and turns we reached the top of the hill where there was a fine view toward Chard.  We carried on down the other side enjoying the scenery and eventually re-joined the A30.  I hope to go back with my camera to the hill above the Cotley Inn and take some landscape pictures of the Somerset countryside south of Chard.

*https://wambrookparishchurch.com/history.html