Britain Caught In A Financial Mess – Of Others’ Making!
THEY DON’T use chalk any more. Instead they have a white board on which the teacher writes with a felt pen. I mention this only because increasingly I seem to have two-way conversations with UJ readers – and it was my column on teaching (UJ October) that produced the liveliest of responses throughout the past [...]
An Electoral Fiddle To Gain Independence?
A CONSTITUTIONAL issue and dodgy tactics are threatening the unity of the United Kingdom. In Scotland, Alec Salmond leads the Scottish National Party (SNP) with 69 seats in the 129-member Assembly. He is promising a referendum on independence before the next Assembly election in 2016. Prior to 1997, John Major’s Conservatives opposed a vote on [...]
Reflections On Fifty Years At The Chalk Face
I HAVE just reached my fiftieth year in teaching, having started in Stoke Newington in September 1962, the month before the Cuban Missile Crisis. Ahead of me lay hundreds of pupils, thousands of lessons and millions of unread words. My first school was a inner-city secondary modern school of the “To Sir With Love” type. [...]
QUEEN JANE ANN’S ROYAL ADVENTURE
WHEN WE last left off, we were heading to Green Park for our Camp Royale. I wondered, as we traipsed through the lobby of our hotel at dawn, backpacks, tents and bags in hand, if the porter had ever seen such nonsense. The Queen can never say that I didn’t do my duty to honor [...]
QUEEN JANE ANN’S ROYAL ADVENTURE
Street Notes – TODAY, AT LAST!!! I am speechless. There are no words to describe the atmosphere. We have risen and within the next two hours, we will begin standing to watch THE MAIN EVENT!!! I wonder how Kate slept? Does she know her new in-laws were partying the night away? They buzzed by in [...]
QUEEN JANE ANN’S ROYAL ADVENTURE
STREET NOTES FROM THE MALL!! Hear ye! Hear ye! WE HAVE A FRONT ROW SPOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are across from Clarence House . . . Buckingham Palace 100 yards to our left. When The Queen goes by in the morning at 10:40am, we will be on the right hand side of her car. We sat up [...]
QUEEN JANE ANN’S ROYAL ADVENTURE
WE’VE JUST returned from our wonderful excursions of the day: First, The Ritz for afternoon tea. Pun intended, but it truly took the cake. Check out this swanky coat check tassel. Are you kidding me??! We later saw Mamma Mia, at the Prince of Wales Theatre in Piccadilly Circus, and it was the best production [...]
QUEEN JANE ANN’S ROYAL ADVENTURE
WE WOKE up with plans to tour London all day, but when the alarm went off at 6:30am, we quickly reconsidered. While it would, no doubt, have been an interesting experience, there is just too much excitement in the air to concentrate on such things. Our focus on the event at hand, has taken over [...]
QUEEN JANE ANN’S ROYAL ADVENTURE
Greetings from London! We made it here in a breeze and it has more charm than we could have ever imagined. The weather is perfect, a bit blustery at night, and everyone is keeping their fingers crossed that it will hold for the weekend. Princess Diana’s wedding gown had a matching umbrella that, fortunately, never [...]
QUEEN JANE ANN’S ROYAL ADVENTURE
Sir Peter, The Duke of Cabbage and Eighth Earl of Carrot. MANY thanks for all of the warm and wonderful bon voyage greetings so many of you have sent. It truly is a pleasure to share this with you as the excitement builds up to The Big Event! As you read this, we’ll be landing [...]
British Pound Exchange Rate
