Category: News

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Guns and stuff

There has been another terrible shooting at a school in the USA, with 17 people dead (so far) and very many more traumatised, families destroyed and lives unfulfilled. According to the statistics, there has been a shooting at a school every other day so far this year, 2018.

There have been calls for gun controls in the USA, the President says no, it’s a mental health thing, many other Republicans say it is not the time to talk about these things, it goes on. You know nothing will be done.

But there is one thing I can tell you – here in the UK we just don’t get it, the fascination with guns, the fact that more than 40% of the American population owns one or more firearms. I don’t. I don’t believe I have ever seen a gun in real life except in a policeman’s holster, and that was not in this country. It’s not any part of our lives for nearly all of us.

So, here are a few UK myths dispelled:

– you can’t get a firearm, no-one has firearms: not true of course, there are plenty of people who have a genuine need for guns, gamekeepers for example. You can get firearms but it is very hard. There are interviews, tests, background checks and so on. You can’t just walk into a shop and buy a gun.

– police are not armed in the UK – not true. It certainly used to be true, but with increased terrorism, you do see armed police at sensitive places, airports, parliament and so on.

– people don’t get murdered in the UK – not true. There is gun crime in this country (I’m sure you can get a gun by some illegal method if you really try) but it is very small. And there are other methods of killing people, including bombs and cars. Sadly, it is not very hard to kill a number of people with a car

In this country, and probably most others, guns are not any part of our culture. Schools and hospitals may have some kind of security (the school I worked at had some security, mainly to stop odd folk wandering in off the street), but no metal detectors. We don’t want to arm teachers. We just want kids to go to school, learn, enjoy their lessons, be safe.

We can’t understand why Americans think it is a human right to carry guns. The Trump attitude of “everyone should carry guns” just mystifies us, except of course, then the gun companies will make even more profit. It’s not the wild west. America is a violent and intolerant country. It seems that you can simply shoot anyone you like, or don’t like, for any or no reason, and nothing happens.

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John Young

I was born in 1954 and my formative years were in the 1960s. I always find it hard to explain to people what it was like then, but it was an exciting time, a time for change and advancement.

My big interest was space, and I am sure I just about remember Sputnik. I definitely remember coming home from school and my mum telling me about Yuri Gagarin, an under-sung hero in the history of the world.

I knew all about the America astronauts, all the missions and craft, and I followed it carefully. JFK made a commitment to landing a man on the Moon before the decade was  out, and returning him safely to Earth. If he had said that now, he would have been all over the press for excluding women.

Most people’s “favourite” astronaut was probably John Glenn. The most famous, possibly one of the most famous people who have ever lived, was Neil Armstrong. There are very few of the originals still alive. Glenn died recently and my favourite, John Young died the other day at a good age.

He was, I would say, a character. Famously, on one flight he smuggled a corned beef sandwich onto the craft. He was the only person in the entire history of the World to fly to the Moon twice and land once. You can read more about him here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Young_(astronaut)

If you can catch the wonderful film In The Shadow Of The Moon, Young’s contribution shows that he was still as enthusiastic as ever about space, always looking to the future.

He would be sad, I am sure, that we no longer have the capability to go to the Moon.

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The end of the year

If I wrote a blog every day, I could fill it with stuff about Trump and about Brexit. But I don’t, and I try to avoid these two subjects for a variety of reasons.

It is more than a year since Mr Trump was elected President of the USA. No surprise to me, actually. I said at the time that the wall (remember that?) would be his downfall, because it was never going to be built, and it is a real, physical, tangible thing that even the stupidest people in the USA can understand. Trump was going to start on the building of the beautiful wall immediately, but here we are nearly a year since he was inaugurated and, nothing.

But, it has constantly gone from bad to worse for Mr T. There have been so many things that have been truly shocking about Trump, his staff and his family, too many to list, and why go over the old ground? But he is still there, and I, for one, do not want him to go. He is just too entertaining.

Brexit, Britain leaving the EU, is just a shambles. Mrs May is incompetent at best, and her Brexit minister David Davis is a smarmy man who just lies through his teeth. Here is a most recent example.

Has any progress been made? Very little, as far as we can tell, except the UK politicians like going over to the continent, presumably because the food is so nice.

Given all this incompetence, what do we have on the news here? Prince Harry (his real name is Henry but maybe that’s too hard) is getting married to an American actress (never heard of her). Mr Trump is not to be invited to the wedding, I guess. For several days the other week, all the wars, famine, destruction and nastiness of life stopped because the happy couple were walking in a garden.

It’s the Princess Diana legacy, except she was never ever ‘Princess Diana’. She was Lady Diana Spencer, married and became Princess of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Duchess of Rothesay, and Countess of Chester. Then she divorced and became Diana, Princess of Wales as a courtesy title.

Not that any of it matters…