What Would Oswald Mosley Have Thought?
Just watching the Holland-England game on the box.
One of the odd things of this match is that Holland are playing in all plain orange and England are playing in plain white. You don’t see that often these days, as marketeers think that fancy strips sell better. The new England strip says that they don’t, as it is selling well. I suspect that something plain is acceptable in many more places like decent restaurants and clubs!
It’s interesting to look at the England side and see how many players are not your average white bloke.
They started with Green, Johnson, Ashley Cole, Ferdinand, Terry, Barry, Beckham, Lampard, Young, Heskey, Rooney. Only Green, Terry, Barry, Beckham, Lampard and Rooney would fall into Mosley’s preferred racial group.
Look at who Fabio Capello would have preferred to play like David James and who he used as substitutes and you might have an England team that line is as James, Johnson, Ashley Cole, Ferdinand, Terry, Barry, Wright-Phillips, Lampard, Young, Heskey, Defoe. Here it’s only Terry, Barry and Lampard.
Does anybody care?
I don’t!
My father wouldn’t have either.
He told me he was there at the Battle of Cable Street, when a coalition of Jews, communists and anti-fascists opposed Oswald Mosley and his supporters marching through the East End of London. But my father wasn’t a communist, although he did have Jewish ancestry, but a left-wing member of the Tory party. That may seem strange today, but race and religion often wasn’t a problem for a lot of Edwardians. It certainly wasn’t for my father, who I never heard say anything racist.
As I get to know my father more from people who met him, I suspect that he was there and his claim that he hit Mosley with a tomato may well be true.
The Coeliac Travel Problem
It was a two and a half hour journey of 155 miles home. But at least I had the top down on the Lotus, which is a great way to drive under the stars. Sadly, I didn’t see any meteorites.
I hadn’t eaten since lunch before I left and except for a fruit bar, I didn’t eat anything on the way back. I generally don’t stop in motorway service stations, as it means putting up and taking down the hood. Not that this is a problem, as it is much quicker, than those fancy electric ones you now get on convertibles, but I am just lazy.
But all of the garages on the A14 had shut their shops, so I got home hungry.
So I went to bed after a small whisky and a bag of crisps.
I should have planned better, but it is a real problem to find sensible gluten-free food to eat on the go. Especially as my fridge that plugs into the car has turned itself into just an insulated box!
Carling Cup at Shrewsbury
After Ironbridge I headed towards Shrewsbury and after a glass of rose wine in the Mytton and Mermaid Hotel at Atcham, I arrived in the town about six forty-five. I should say that the hotel looked magnificent, but at the time I was there, they didn’t have any snacks at all, as they close the kitchens from about four until six-thirty. They didn’t have any decent cider either! Only Strongbow and Magners! I thought that you got good cider in that part of the country.
Do these people want business?
I mean everybody was pleasant and welcoming, but us coeliacs are a prickly lot and we need to graze consistently. That reminds me, I need some more cake. Gluten-free ginger slices from Waitrose.
Now I had made one mistake in that I’d assumed that Shrewsbury still played at the wonderfully named Gay Meadow, which used to be by the River Severn. Legend has it that there was a man in a coracle ready to retrieve any balls that went that way. Will certain US web sites translate the word Gay in this post to something else, just like they do for the American sprinter, Tyson Gay?
As I approached the town centre, there was a reassuring sign with a P and a football on it. After half a mile, I found another sign pointing the way I’d come with P and “Gay Meadow” on it. As there was no sign of any football supporters, I even checked my match ticket to make sure, I’d got the right day. In the end because I needed fuel for the Lotus, I broke a habit of several years and went into Asda to get some. (I always buy products if I can from British companies first, when I have a choice and it doesn’t cost me more!)
Even the guy there was unsure, but eventually I found myself in an area with signs saying “No Football Parking” and people in recognisable Ipswich shirts walking along the road. The area bore no relation to the first sign I’d seen, so I guess it must be some dark plot to get people lost in Shrewsbury. What fate would have awaited me?
Shrewsbury Town's ProStar Stadium
This shows the new ground, the ProStar Stadium, as you approach it over the railway. I then followed others over a fence and down an embankment to cut the corner off getting to the ground. Why don’t architects work out how people will walk and cycle into a site and then create entrances accordingly? In this case, they could have put steps down to make it safer. But then people might fall down the steps in a large crowd and the club would get sued!
Inside the Ground
This shows the inside of the ground, which at present has a capacity of just under 10,000, with everybody in seats. It is typical of some of the modern grounds that we are starting to see in English football. It would also appear that when clubs make this investment wisely, they seem to move up a division. Look at Doncaster and Blackpool for a start. Perhaps, it’s just that you get more bums on seats and a better cashflow, which means better players. And also if I was a footballer, I’d prefer to play in a modern stadium with good facilities and a good pitch.
Shrewsbury's Mascot
Ipswich had brought a sizable crowd and the picture shows the mascot throwing sweets to them. I actually got one, but was it gluten-free? I didn’t chance the glucose in it and gave it away.
Ipswich always have a large support away and I suspect this is because it has a very large diaspora. You always meet locals at away matches, who used to go to Portman Road, when they lived in Suffolk and still follow Town at a distance. Perhaps the funniest thing was when I was in Moscow, I met a genuine Scouser, who had always supported Town. He’d obviously grown up in the 1970s and 80s and did it just to be difficult!
The match was entertaining and at full time and after extra time it was three-all. But then Ipswich won easily on penalties. I’m not sure how the Shrewsbury fans liked being taunted with the chant, “You’re just a small town in Wales!”
After the Shoot-Out
Phew!
A Blot on the Landscape
Ironbridge is a World Heritage Site and rightly so. Go a few kilometres upstream and the gorge opens out and you can see how the Severn meanders across the countryside. Note that meander comes from the River Meander in Turkey.
River Severn above Ironbridge
But turn to the left and between where I took this picture and the Iron Bridge you will see this.
Ironbridge Power Station
This is the coal-fired Ironbridge Power Station. It was built in 1981 and according to Friends of the Earth is the second worst polluter in the UK per megawatt generated.
It just shows how attitudes have changed over time.
Would anybody in their right mind build a power station there now?
As an aside here, remember that I have a degree in Electrical Engineering from Liverpool University and have spent quite a bit of my working life looking at how large projects, structures and machines are built and managed.
When you burn coal to produce electricity, you turn a tonne of coal into 2.93 tonnes of carbon dioxide. If you were to use natural gas to get the same amount of electricity, the figure is lower. This quote from Wikipedia gives all the figures.
This can be used to calculate an emission factor for CO2 from the use of coal power. Since the useful energy output of coal is about 30% of the 6.67 kWh/kg(coal), the burning of 1 kg of coal produces about 2 kWh of electrical energy. Since 1 kg coal emits 2.93 kg CO2, the direct CO2 emissions from coal power are 1.47 kg/kWh, or about 0.407 kg/MJ.
The U.S. Energy Information Agency’s 1999 report on CO2 emissions for energy generation, quotes a lower emission factor of 0.963 kg CO2/kWh for coal power. The same source gives factor for oil power in the U.S. of 0.881 kg CO2/kWh, while natural gas has 0.569 kg CO2/kWh. Estimates for specific emission from nuclear power, hydro, and wind energy vary, but are about 100 times lower.
What I find interesting about these figures is the discrepancy between the first figures for CO2 from coal and the US ones!
But whichever set you accept, the message is simple; Don’t Burn Coal!
Ironbridge
In the end I left about just before two and after a pretty easy drive along the A14, M6 and M54, I arrived at Ironbridge about four thirty. The only delays were around the M6/M5 junction, but they were minimal. At least the signs had told me that the motorway was reasonably clear, so I didn’t take the more expensive option of the M6 Toll. The problem with that road is that it doesn’t link up properly with the M54 and you sometimes get delayed on the single carriageway link.
Why do we create cheap junctions and miss bits out when we built roads like the M54-M6 Toll Link, the A14-M1-M6 junction at Catthorpe and the A11 missing link at Elveden? I suspect it’s because the mandarins in the Treasury don’t travel except by executive helicopter or First Class train. So they never suffer the inconvenience they leave us. It just needs proper planning!
On the other hand I once met a senior mandarin. He was single, couldn’t swim, couldn’t ride a bike, lived in a terraced house in Surbiton and was very lacking in general common sense. But he had got a First from Oxford!
To return to Ironbridge.
The Iron Bridge
I got there just as it was closing. And by closing I mean virtually everything. I asked in one cafe why they were closing at five and they said it was because everybody left then because that was the time the museums closed.
On a gorgeous summer evening like last night, they should be open till at least six and if it was me, it would be seven or eight.
View from the Iron Bridge
This is the view looking north and it shows the deep gorge carved out by the River Severn.
Looking the Other Way from the Iron Bridge
And this is the view looking downstream.
Next time I’ll go earlier and check out some of the museums. One thing though is that the long term car park on the other side of the bridge to the town was very affordable and reasonably empty. I should have got my bike out to explore the town.
Food Sell-By Dates
Melanie Reid wrote a thought provoking article for The Times yesterday on food sell-by dates. The first two paragraphs set the tone.
Made a cracking lasagne on Sunday. The cheese was several weeks old, the parsley so wilted it was borderline slimey, the tomatoes needed big mouldy bits cut off and the cream was ten days beyond its sell-by date. The mince was … well, I should really have cooked it midweek, but it was only a little bit grey.
The dish tasted terrific and no one in the house has yet died, or at least not so you’d notice. In fact, after a lifetime of scouring the fridge for leftovers and lost inspiration, I’m sure as a family we have superior immune systems and a sturdier bank balance. Though perhaps not quite as robust as that of one particular friend, who only ever buys food from the supermarket discard bin and is correspondingly able to fund a second home in France.
Today there is this response in the same paper.
Sir, Last night I played Russian roulette and won (“Hang the sell-by date: just eat and enjoy”, Melanie Reid, Notebook, Aug 11).
Tonight I might not be so lucky.
Tim J. Smith
Chief Executive
Food Standards Agency
What do I do? Use my commonsense and I’ve never had food poisoning. But for me being glutened is much more important. I’d admit I’ve done that a couple of times.
The Anonymous Widower 