Broad Oak Magazine

We suffer the recent transport problems where no one it seems can leave the country by air, the railways are to expensive and on strike anyway and the price of petrol is prohibiting much car travel, but there is an answer…

So staying at home takes on a whole new meaning, not that different from the imposed lockdown conditions.

Several government statements were issued this week in the hope one or another will bolster Bojo’s decline; they won't, and they are no more than statements. One about the ‘houses for everyone’ will soon dispel any illusion that this is anything other than an ill-thought-out idea or simply a piece of propaganda being issued on the premise ‘we are doing something.'

The original ’right to buy’ scheme under Margaret Thatcher was at the time seen as a great way to get people on the housing ladder. This was achieved by discounting the council properties the buyers lived in and impoverishing the councils who had little in return to replace those same lost council properties built with taxpayers' money. Replace them they didn’t, resulting today in waiting lists for social housing that only the NHS can compete with.

Only desperation would make anyone want to buy the smallest housing builds in Europe and they are getting smaller: average houses in the Twenties were roughly twice the size, plus a real garden.

The only people to gain, and why not, were those offered their council properties at the bargain discount prices who then sold on later at market rates and made a killing. Once again the taxpayer and the council lost out.

This time, being a scheme under Boris’s reign the facts are far from clear - 'mud' is too kind a word - and maybe that is the point: it is just a statement boosting (he hopes) his kerbside appeal in times of strife.

Before looking at it, one has to ask why are we building so many rabbit hutches in the first place. 'Not enough and too slow' is the cry that goes up, yet the indigenous demographic is static, so any demand is being caused by the fact we have 7 million extra people in the land since 2010; and who created that problem?

One's first reaction is to ask how do people on benefits qualify for a mortgage? If they have enough for a deposit they don’t qualify for benefits; or are we missing something?

Secondly, this applies not just to council properties but housing associations and, if the wording is correct, privately owned properties in the letting market. The latter can’t be true as the government is discounting these properties, and how is the private sector going to take a discounted hit on the selling price? This has to be nonsense.

However, critics have pointed out that Universal Credit is only available to families with less than £16,000 in investments and savings, meaning they would have very limited access to mortgages, or in the real world, none at all.

Most lenders ask a minimum of 10 per cent deposit. Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove indicated the government was looking at creating a savings vehicle that would not count toward the benefits limit, but it is unclear how that would work or how banks would be made to accept the handouts in their calculations.

The housing association position is more serious. With so little social housing being built by councils, housing associations have been taking up some of the slack; to hit them with this scheme would be a disincentive to build any more new units - what would be the point?

In fact the more one looks into it the more it becomes fantasy…

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10898599/Tenants-benefits-offered-new-package-help-buy-homes.html

Above all it would require those who have worked hard and saved for their own homes to be subsidising a scheme for those on benefits to reap the rewards of a cheap home they cash in on later.

“Downing Street said there will be a 'mortgage review' looking at how low-deposit mortgages could be extended.“

There are already many ways mortgages are propped up by assistance to those on benefits, all explained here in this handy editorial:

https://slothmove.com/moving-house-on-benefits/

I never thought I would see the day when a government would promote sub-prime mortgages after what happened not that long ago; for that, dressed up in a different way, is what this is.

The banks have already said they are not going with this as it stands.

This parody is spot on…

https://newsthump.com/2022/06/10/banks-confirm-they-will-happily-give-a-mortgage-for-a-250000-house-to-uc-claimants-on-350-a-month/

So what are we to make of it? Is it a serious effort to get people on the housing ladder, or just hot air? Judging by other government statements this last week the latter seems more probable. At this rate, future governments will make mortgages redundant and all new homes will be given to those who cannot afford them and thereby save all the paperwork involved in current schemes.

Bearing in mind warnings that our hallowed housing sector is due for a fall, all this will become tomorrows fish and chip wrapping, and we will move on to Bojo’s next wheeze.

Friday, June 17, 2022

FRIDAY MUSIC: Albert Ketèlbey, by JD

Albert Ketèlbey (1875 - 1959) was an English composer, conductor & pianist born in Birmingham. He became famous for composing popular light music, much of which was used as accompaniments to silent films, and as mood music at tea dances.

You can read a full biography here - http://www.albertketelbey.org.uk/albert.html

This third video is Ronnie Ronalde whistling over the melody. He was never off the radio in the fifties and was popular with my parents' generation; maybe not popular but certainly different!

Monday, June 13, 2022

New Substack articles !

See what you missed on 'Now and Next' - subscribe and share if you like!

June 1 - 7:

Boris Johnson's mock-Imperialism

He waves the flag but he's a chancer

https://rolfnorfolk.substack.com/p/boris-johnsons-mock-imperialism?s=w

Private Eye: from satire to propaganda

The magazine has lost its balance over Ukraine

https://rolfnorfolk.substack.com/p/private-eye-from-satire-to-propaganda?s=w

Ukraine is a distraction from service to the people

The US needs a bogeyman to disguise domestic failure

https://rolfnorfolk.substack.com/p/ukraine-is-a-distraction-from-service?s=w

Monarchy and national integration

Never mind the miserygutses, the Jubilee helps unite us

https://rolfnorfolk.substack.com/p/monarchy-and-national-integration?s=w

Baron Munchausen 1

The first of the original tales, in a new translation

https://rolfnorfolk.substack.com/p/baron-munchausen?s=w

Pounds and ounces: power to the people

Why the old measures actually work better

https://rolfnorfolk.substack.com/p/pounds-and-ounces-power-to-the-people?s=w

Zelenskyy's kill list

He didn't start it, but he's not stopping it

https://rolfnorfolk.substack.com/p/zelenskyy-and-ukraines-kill-list?s=w

Sunday, June 12, 2022

COLOUR SUPPLEMENT: Inch Perfect, by JD

There was last week an article on the web site TCW - Defending Freedom about the restoration of our traditional pounds and ounce which had been made illegal by dint of our membership of the European Union.

"BORIS Johnson’s proposal to restore pounds and ounces and the crown mark on pint beer glasses may be opportunist populism from a cynical chancer, but much of the imperial system of weights and measures worked better than metric.

"That’s because it was rooted in what people found useful. By contrast, the rule of ten was imposed from above in the French Revolution, a politically-driven programme to cut us off from our past and begin afresh; progressivism is about centralised power versus the populace."

https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/in-praise-of-pounds-and-ounces/

Let's hope this is the beginning of the restoration of all of our ancient and customary units of measurement which are indeed rooted in what people found to be useful and practical (politicians and academics are invariably lost in their own little world which is governed by theories and are woefully unfamiliar with anything practical).

The next step surely is to restore the inch/foot basis of our built environment; something which never really went away if truth be told.

The following is the text of an article written in October 1995 for 'Perspectives on Architecture', a magazine dedicated to traditional architecture and to the craftsmanship required for the preservation and maintenance of our built environment.

The article was timed to coincide with the British Government's compulsory use of metric measurement for all goods and services in the UK, a legal requirement which is widely ignored and disliked by the majority of people. The article is a reflection of the merits or otherwise of its use in the building industry where it has been compulsory for 30 years.

For reasons best known to the editors, the article was never published. It would seem that their commitment to traditional values does not include that most fundamental of requirements in the construction industry; i.e. the practical use of measurements to transcribe drawings into real life buildings.

-----------------------------------------------

In 1965 the building industry decided to change to the use of French Decimal measurement, commonly known as the Metric system. Thirty years on and with the rest of industry now obliged to follow suit, perhaps it is time for a progress report. No one seems to have asked yet; has it worked? Is everyone happy with it? Is it easier, as the metricators claim, or is it harder? Is it better than the traditional system, or worse?

Working in the industry, I went along with this idea at the time without giving it much thought. In those days people still had faith in politicians and business leaders and believed that they knew what they were doing. (The events of these last two years, 2020 - 2022, has definitely shattered that particular illusion!) Now that I have spent a number of years studying the history of architecture and of building, I have discovered how and why we arrive at the measurements we have always used.

The first and most striking thing about the 1965 change is that there has been no change. The industry carried on using and continues to use the same materials in the same sizes but with different unit values. Thus a brick is still 9" long but is now designated as 225mm. The standard door size remains at 6'6" x 2'6" but now has what appears to be a code number of 1981x762mm. Why is this? Where are the materials/components which are whole units of 1 or 2 metres or natural multiples/divisions such as 250mm or 500mm? There seems little point in adopting a system of measurement whose basic unit is incompatible with the building process in terms of sizes required to build a house, for example, which is correctly proportioned relative to the size of the people who live in that house. After 30 years, it is apparent that the metric unit of 1 metre is too large and 1 centimetre is too small to be used comfortably in the building process. This is relevant in the rest of Europe too, by the way. Did you know that in Spain they still build brick walls one foot thick (ladrillo de un pie)?

Those who know their history will know that the metre was invented in France in 1790 and is, allegedly, one ten-millionth of the distance from the North Pole to the Equator. The invention of the metre was part of the Revolutionaries' rational and scientific response to what they regarded as the superstitions of the past.

By contrast, the British Imperial system (as used by the Greeks and the Romans as well as in pre-revolutionary France) is anthropometric which means it is based on the human frame. From time immemorial units of measure have been derived from the human figure: palm, hand, foot, cubit etc. Some fall out of use and become archaic but those which remain do so for the very good reason that they are convenient, practical, easy to understand and, above all, easy to visualise which is a necessary part of translating working drawings into a built structure.

This was clearly demonstrated to me when I recently had a garage built. The workmen, all of whom were under 30 years of age were thinking and working in feet and inches - 18" deep foundations, 4" step etc. When any change such as that wrought in 1965 is mooted, nobody ever consults the real experts, the people who actually do the work. Where theory and practice do not coincide then theory is wrong and practice is right. Or to put it another way - in theory there is no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is. Remember that according to aerodynamic theory it is impossible for a bee to fly!

It must be obvious to anyone who cares to think about it that an anthropometric unit such as the foot is preferable to a theoretical unit such as the metre. The metre, in fact, has had its official length changed no less than three times since 1790 (the latest being in 1965) and is currently deemed to be 1/299,792,458th of the distance light travels in one second. That's a real handy reference next time you are measuring a room for carpets or wallpaper.

The second aspect of the metric system is that it is based on the number 10 rather than 12. The superiority of duodecimals over decimals involves some esoteric reasoning which is too complicated to go into here but you may wish to refer to Plato's ideal cities of Magnesia (duodecimal) and Atlantis (decimal) and we all know what happened to Atlantis... Suffice to say that 12 can be easily divided into thirds and quarters whereas 10 cannot. (Ref 1. below)

The reasons put forward in support of metric are far from compelling. They range from the feeble ('everyone else uses it') to the dimwitted ('we have ten fingers for counting on' - which also demonstrates the general misconception that counting and measuring are the same; they are not!). There has never been, to my knowledge, a logical demonstration of metric's superiority in use over traditional measurement. One of the most famous architects of the Modern Movement, Le Corbusier, used feet and inches to calculate his twin modular system of design after struggling and failing to work it out in metres and centimetres.

Everyone I talk to is in agreement with the Prince of Wales when he calls for our towns and cities to be built on a human scale. This will never happen until we revert to a human scale of measurement.

---------------------------------------

Ref.1 - http://www.geomancy.org/index.php/mag-e-zine/mag-e-zine-1996/no-3-autumn-equinox/cosmic-dozens?highlight=WyJzY2huZWlkZXIiXQ==

Saturday, June 11, 2022

WEEKENDER: Isle of Man TT Races, by Wiggia

The TT races are a reminder of days gone by, an anomaly in today's motorsport calender that survives because people want it to. The TT races were the most prestigious in the GP calendar: it was the one race all wanted to win, to have on their CV.

All the greats have been there, won and been remembered for some truly epic performances over the 37.73 mile course. Its landmarks are etched into the history of the races: the Bungalow, Union Mills, Kirk Michael, Quarter Bridge, Snaefell mountain road, and many more, the aficionados can quote them all. There are roughly two hundred corners on this circuit and sixty of them are named, no circuit in motor sport comes anywhere near. It is unique; the only competitor to its fame is the legendary Nürburgring in Germany which is a fourteen-mile motor racing circuit as opposed to the road racing one that is the TT course.

The race lost its status as part of the GP calendar after the 1976 event. This was largely because of a protest after the death of a rider in 1972. In many ways it was inevitable that safety concerns would eventually mean top riders and manufacturers would start to question the validity of this one race; the cost for the manufacturers of a race that was in length with practice almost a Grand Prix season on its own and the special technical provisos for this one race started to add up to a deficit against any gains for a win.

The changes on safety grounds to the course over the years have been continuous but you can never make a road course ‘safe’, it is just not possible, so the TT had to revert to a different formula to carry on. Remarkably it still has this magic appeal to the fans in its comparatively watered-down state, if you can call 133-mph laps watered down! What the lap times would be with full-blown Moto GP bikes is frightening but that is not going to happen.

The TT has seen the greatest of racing motorcyclists and the same with machinery. Many of today's manufacturers cut their teeth at the TT, none more so than Honda who came saw and conquered in a manner that few could have envisaged.

This one two-week race fest was the shop window to the world for the Honda manufacturers, and the new (to Europe) trade teams made full use of a moribund British motorcycle indusrty and cashed in, in spades. 1959 was their first appearance at the races in the 125cc and 250cc classes; they didn’t win individually but won the team prize. That sort of reliability was remarkable for an outfit on its first appearance. The advancement of their technology going forward was nothing short of amazing, finishing when they pulled out, temporarily, of GP racing with the ‘greatest’ racing motorcycle of all time, or certainly the equal of anything before or since: the six cylinder 250cc and the 305cc model that was capable of beating the current front runners in the 500cc class.

For the petrol heads the sound of the Honda Six can be sampled here - as someone once said, it’s like an air raid siren:

And the two works Hondas of Hailwood and Redman:

Since those heady days when the greatest riders competed on some of the greatest machinery on the world's most challenging circuit, the TT has clung on as an anachronism supported mainly by generations that remember the history and many riders whose holy grail is to ride the greatest circuit on earth. There is some truth in the latter: there is simply nowhere in motor racing that has a circuit anywhere near it in length and complexity and that of course has led to its downfall.

It is true you would have a job today to get the best of the world's riders to race there: they no longer do road circuits. For reasons of safety even the more interesting older circuits of some length such as the Nürburgring have been demoted from F1 and MotoGP partly on safety grounds and partly on TV viewing - those long circuits are difficult to cover and expensive, only Le Mans survives.

Will it continue? There seems to be no end to the number of riders who come from all over the world to test themselves against the mountain course, and it brings in a lot of bikers and others for the two weeks who in turn bring in a lot of revenue to the Isle Of Man.

No one needs reminding that all motor sport can be dangerous. Safety in track design and riders' equipment has made racing much safer in recent years, but at a cost: the circuits today have that sameness of character to such a degree that many are interchangeable and quite frankly boring. Silverstone, now for some reason our premier circuit despite having millions spent on it, is still an airfield at heart, a featureless bloody place - I know, I raced there - but money talks and better race tracks such as Brands Hatch and Donnington have been passed over.

The TT though goes on, for how long is anyone's guess. The sights and sounds of motorcycles going past your front door at 200 mph is a unique sight but an increasingly dangerous one. One cannot but think in this day and age, whatever one's leanings towards this two week jamboree on the greatest circuit on earth, that eventually someone or something will step in and say 'enough'. That will be a sad day but it has to be weighed against the death toll mounting year by year to what is now the population of a small village. Many riders it has to be said should probably not be racing there: too old, too inexperienced in this type of racing and in some cases just not good enough to take on on such a demanding course with all its dangers. The number who start in these races is much higher than a circuit race simply because they start in two’s at intervals so the size of the field is determined by the number who enter, not as elesewhere limited to the fastest 24 who qualify.

It may well be the ultimate challenge to race there but the question today is, is it worth it?

Since its conception the IOM races including the Manx Grand Prix later in the year has now claimed over 250 riders, three more this year as I write in the first week of racing. However much the adage ‘he died doing what he wanted to do’ is trotted out there is a limit when it becomes acceptable for so many to die. Yes it will be a very sad day when the plug is eventually pulled on this event, and there is no sign at the moment that is going to happen, but I think eventually it will; the memorials are running out of road, Better to remember what it was when it was the greatest motor cycle race in the world with the greatest riders all wanting to win and the manufacturers wanting the prestige. Despite the bravery of all who ride there today it is no longer the greatest and perhaps it should be let go before it is pushed.

That is only my opinion; the many who still go there and race there would tell me to 'do one' and I would accept that as I am aware where they are coming from; but time will tell, this carnage can’t go on. Nostalgia should not be enough for its survival.