This was London, in all its filth and glory. Nostalgic for the past, while yearning to cast off the chains of bygone ages and step forward into the bright utopia of the future. Proud of its achievements, yet despising its own flaws. A monster in both size and nature, that would consume the unwary and spit them out again, in forms unrecognizable and undreamt. London, the monster city.
Marie Brennan (b.1980), With Fate Conspire
On 17 March 1968, an anti-Vietnam war rally with 10,000 protesters held at Trafalgar Square turned violent when a large group marched to the American embassy in Grosvenor Square. Hundreds of police surrounded the building, which at that time was not protected by anti-terror barricades. Violence flared and by the end of the day, 246 had been arrested, of which 7 were imprisoned and 91 police injured.
On 17 March 1845 the rubber band was patented by Stephen Perry, it was made to secure papers, early versions were made of vulcanised rubber
Anne Morrow might have regretted marry three times while dressed as a man when she was permanently blinded by missiles while being pilloried
The Serpentine was the world’s first artificial pond designed not to look manmade when the River Westbourne was diverted in 1730
Holy relics kept at Westminster Abbey included: Virgin Mary’s girdle; Mary Magdalene’s hair; a phial of Christ’s blood and St. Benedict’s head
So unpopular he was deposed in 1688 but before going into exile King James II petulantly threw the Great Seal of State into the Thames
The statute of Field Marshal Lord Woseley on Horse Guards Parade was cast in bronze from recycled from captured enemy cannon
Theatre Royal, Haymarket was the third theatre to get a royal licence, it was granted after the owner broke his leg falling from the Duke of York’s horse in 1766
The youngest rower to win the University Boat Race is Matt Smith who at 18 years 255 days won with Oxford in March 2000
The longest journey in a car (1988 Volkswagon Scirocco) powered by coffee was from London to Manchester (337km) in March 2010
At Forty Hall, Enfield 15 acres of grapes are growing – the purpose is to start London’s first commercial vineyard since medieval times
50 Berkeley Square was once the home of George Canning, Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister and claims to be the most haunted building in London
Trivial Matter: London in 140 characters is taken from the daily Twitter feed @cabbieblog.
A guide to the symbols used here and source material can be found on the Trivial Matter page.
For those new to CabbieBlog or readers who are slightly forgetful, on Saturdays I’m republishing posts, many going back over a decade. Some will still be very relevant while others have become dated over time. Just think of this post as your weekend paper supplement.
I read an interesting article regarding the fuel rises of late. Someone with more time on his hands that is really healthy came up with these interesting figures. Being the same age as me he started driving in 1965 and according to his calculations, the national average wage was £700 a year or around £13 a week (I was on £5 per week, but no mind), and I was paying four shilling (20p) for a gallon of diesel. That meant I could buy a total of 67.5 gallons if I was earning £13 a week. The national average pay today is £22,000 a year or £423 a week and the average price of diesel is £5.81 a gallon, so I can now buy 73.15 gallons of fuel with a week’s wages. As a percentage of my earnings, I’m paying less for fuel than I was 46 years ago. So why do I get angry over the cost of motoring or is it that as a cabbie I’m buying over £120 of the stuff a week?
This simple “back of a fag packet” calculation would indicate that we have nothing to complain about when it comes to fuel prices, for they are charging less in real terms than they were 40 years ago. Should we be concerned about the companies that sell the product, who cares that Shell was raking in £1.6 million an hour in the final quarter of last year? Well, yes we should.
With oil reserves becoming so inaccessible it produced the fiasco that BP found itself in the Gulf of Mexico last year. And now with proposals to drill under the polar icecaps, and all the difficulty that will entail, not to mention the possible cost to this fragile ecosphere, you would think that the diesel for my cab would be remorselessly rising faster than the cost of living. But according to my fag packet calculations that is not the case.
For more added value can be obtained from processing the black gold. Shell makes the vast bulk of its profits on the “upstream” side of the business – producing oil and gas – rather than the “downstream” refining and petrol sales. These by products are much more profitable than flogging diesel to London cabbies, which after all are only going to burn it and come back for more.
It is for this reason that oil companies are increasingly trying to alienate themselves from the motorist. Take the typical petrol station, its forecourt is dirty, fuel often leaking from nozzles and covering your hands with diesel, and here’s the rub: Notices that tell the motorist – and only the motorist that he’s dishonest. The motorist is photographed from every angle while you brace yourself from the wind that always seems to blow through these soulless places. There is on the forecourt a presumption of guilt. On each pump the sign reads: “Make sure you have sufficient funds BEFORE you fill up. We will prosecute anyone who drives off without paying for their fuel.” And this might surprise some, at night garages insist on payment up front, so you have to queue up in the cold twice to pay (the second time is because the high prices make it impossible to stop at the desired amount). When paying up front I once requested a receipt and I was told once by the poorly paid attendant I’ll give you a receipt after you have filled up. My reply was of course: “If you don’t trust me, I’m hardly going to trust you”.
If you are lucky to enter the warmth of the shop what do you find? Well, if it is in Chelsea or Fulham everybody doing their weekly shop. So you have to queue as if it was Tesco on a Saturday morning. And here’s the thing: those shoppers don’t have to pay up front for their frozen peas, milk or bread, nor are they told as they peruse the shelves they are potential thieves.
So here are my suggestions taken from when I was paying 20p a gallon: Stop serving coffee and selling groceries; man the pumps and clean the forecourt; have you staff in smart uniforms and pay them enough so they actually do care if I buy diesel; trying getting your attendants to fill the tank so they get covered in diesel and not me; and get them to wash my windscreen if it is necessary. But it’s unlikely to happen for you see the multi-national oil companies only make a few pence profit per litre – some estimates are as little as 2p a litre.
Finally, and I promise this is the last gripe, why, with previous Governments spending a fortune encouraging motorists that drinking and driving don’t mix, are these shops which happen to have petrol pumps attached to them, allowed to sell alcohol?
I am reading Hedgelands by Christopher Hart. A chapter on the attributes of trees within a hedge is discussed.
Quoting research titled ‘The Value of Different Tree and Shrub Species to Wildlife’ by Keith Alexander, Jill Butler and Ted Green it transpired that the London plane is useless.
The paper’s authors rated trees as to their friendliest to British wildlife, using a range of criteria, rating species from one to five.
The London plane actually scored zero stars in several categories, including foliage inverts, wood decay inverts, blossom for pollen and nectar, also the tree’s fruits and seeds.
The species is a hybrid of the American sycamore and the Oriental plane, whose native territory is south-eastern Europe. But the London plane tree faces a problem. According to climate models from the Met Office, the planet’s mean temperature could increase by as much as 4°C by 2100, this will push the London plane to the edge of its range.
Only 1.36 per cent of the Capital’s trees are London planes, and they may not be much use to wildlife, but it has a redeeming attribute. The bark of the tree has the amazing ability to trap pollution. By shedding the bark, the tree removes pollution from the environment.
Research from the Center for Countering Digital Hate has found that a third of UK teenagers believe climate change is ‘exaggerated’, the report found, that many YouTube videos promoting a new kind of climate denial aimed at young people proliferate on the platform. First many believed that climate change was not happening, or that humans were not exacerbating the decline. Now the research indicated the idea that the effects of global heating are beneficial or harmless.
Well, first these youngsters should look at my garden being slowly transformed into a bog, we have had rain almost every day in London. Secondly, my daughter has just returned from a skiing holiday in Aviemore in the Cairngorms National Park, except there was no snow and the only light covering was being used as nursery slopes, with novices being charged hundreds to ski.
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