Category Archives: History

Battle of Brunanburh

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Why is the Battle of Brunanburh important? “This poorly recalled battle is actually one of the most important in British history since Athelstan’s crushing defeat of the combined Norse-Celtic force facing him (King Athelstan) irrevocably confirmed England as an Anglo-Saxon kingdom, forcing the Celtic kingdoms to consolidate in the positions they occupy today.” [Thanks to Wikipedia].

PS: I like the suggestion, having been born in Bebington, that “the Brackenwood golf course was cited in 2004 as a likely site for the Battle of Brunanburh in AD 937″.

The story of this site so far

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Just passed the 30k mark in terms of unique visitors, since 2 November 2005 launch a few days before my 40th birthday. However, checking on the Wayback Machine I also remembered the predecessor site, m-power.org.uk, first launched in August 2000. While the domain m-power.org.uk was registered by me on 24-Feb-1998, just a few weeks before I flew out to Memphis with the BBC for the Martin L. King 30th Anniversary. What goes around, comes around, changed.

Game theory rules (sic)

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Saw the BBC2 programme on game theory last night which was amusing to see on a number of levels. The great mathematician John Nash expounding a theory about people’s selfish when he was mentally ‘ill’; R D Laing walking around in a cravat; the BBC in sonorous tones telling us when/how/why ‘we’ were being manipulated. But for me the best was seeing Margaret Thatcher talking about freedom in connection with the fall of the Berlin Wall (garden wall?:-). And so obviously now seeing on her face the lack of real comprehension as to what she was talking about – freedom that is. Ah well, it’s tough being an agent of history.

PS: See my own small contribution to the anti-psychiatry movement at the Foucault Tribunal back in 1998; was fun at the time hanging out in east Berlin; chatting to Kate Millett in the workers’ canteen, and mentioning to her that James Earl Ray had just died.

The History (4) Boys

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Diane caught up with Leicester radical historian Ned Newitt the other day and bemoaned the fact that I wasn’t ‘doing history’ any more. OK, that’s partly just another common mum type theme about sons not doing what their mothers want. But I confess since ‘Uni’ (1987) I haven’t entirely been quiet. After all I did help the 30th anniversary campaign (1998) with Dr Coby Smith to re-try the real killers of Dr Martin Luther King, re-writing history in the process. But that’s mothers for you. Never happy.

PS: Looking forward to unveiling of the MLK scuplture in Washington DC next year, April 2008, also a US election year I believe? I’m sure these connections are not lost on Rev Al Sharpton, from what he was saying about the lasting legacy of slavery on the Daily Show. Funny thing is how going to Brazil I found out more slaves went there than the US; maybe that’s why Snoop did his video from there? The connections are there to be discovered, that’s history. (Funny, didn’t I hear earlier this month that the study of slavery is going to be part of the National Curriculum in the UK, as part of the study of the British Empire?).

The White Horse Pub in Dover

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If you’re staying for more than a couple of hours in Dover I recommend the historic White Horse Pub in Dover. To quote another customer recommendation: “This was a nice and quite friendly pub, and has names of all the people who have swum the channel on the ceiling and wall. They gave us free nuts, and it was in a nice location close to the remains of a ruined church….” What more do you want, dancing ladies?!

In defence of Her Majesty

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The Queen get’s flak from the Sunday Mirror today for daring to ask a NATO officer for his opinion on the war in Afghanistan. Reportedly Her Majesty asked Lithuanian Captain Arnold Raizys: “Is it a restoration or a war in Afghanistan?” Political editor Vincent Moss described this question as “confused”. Of course in its editorial a few pages in, its changed its opinion on to “a good question”. I never thought I’d side with the Queen against the Mirror but I respectfully suggest this is somewhat stupid and patronising of the Mirror. Er, hadn’t is occurred to them to take a clue from her use of the word “restoration” that she is not so stupid as they make out? Come on guys, think about it. But not too hard you have a dead-line to meet.

Forgotten?

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I was going to blog something today but I forgot – then remembered mid-way through writing – the coincidence that I’m working for a guy who comes from Gandhi’s home town in India. Dr Martin Luther King would have appreciated that one as a student of Gandhi. Personally, anyone who can turf out the Brits without a bloody revolution has my undying admiration! (And I studied revolution at Cambridge).

Why History Matters

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The first question on the National Trust blog day form, is ‘Why History Matters To You’? Kind of a difficult question, which I like. So let me try an answer that in my own style.

Firstly, history gives a sense that whatever people are going nuts about now is probably something people have gone nuts about some other time and place.

Secondly, that each age has a different view of what makes history.

Thirdly, people get worked up about history. Currently in the graveyard of St Margaret’s Church in Barking (where Captain and Elizabeth Cook were married incidentally) someone has inked in the fading words of an 18th century grave. The church has responded with hanging a notice over the grave to say essentially that this is a serious matter which has been referred back to the Bishop of Chelmsford.

Ten to two

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Have you ever noticed how many watch and clock adverts set the time to ten to two? Look, this is really a joke to me. Why? I once covered the anniversary of England’s last rural riots in a village called Roydon in 1893 (even wrote it up for History Today magazine, so there). And the story goes that the nickname given to the villagers sired by the lord of the manor were called ‘ten to twoers’ as their feet (as per their lordly father’s) stuck out on the position ten to two.

The abridged history of Barking

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I went on a cycle round round historic Barking on Wednesday to discover that Elizabeth Fry the prison reformer is burried next to the Sikh Temple (the Quakers sold it to the Sikh’s in 1971); and came across the pilgramage holy rood stone in the surviving curfew tower from Barking Abbey (recently renovated by a team from Danbury in Essex); or the many sites where Barking was bombed such as Blake’s Corner where Boots now stands. Indeed there was a veteran cyclist, who’d lived in Barking in the war, and had survived a V1 bomb (‘Doodlebug’) just 250 yards from him. Records show that 37 V1s and 21 V2s hit the borough.

All I had to offer as anedecotal input was, in mentioning there used to be a R White’s lemonade factory in the centre, that I once met the son of the guy who performed the famous R White’s TV commercial (note for the technically minded: Ross MacManus – father of Elvis Costello – who sang the “Secret Lemonade Drinker” song – & it was television presenter Bob Holness that composed the tune). But then again I’ve also met by chance the daughter of the guy who did the English dubbed voice for the character of Monkey in the cult TV series of that name. Funny the things who come across without trying too hard.