Four years ago Phillips could not attend Athens because her horse Toytown had been injured. Since Athens, they have won gold medals at the 2005 European Championship and the 2006 World Equestrian Games.
The equestrian events will be held at the Hong Kong Sports Institute and Penfold Park in Shatin, Beas River Country Club, and part of the adjacent Hong Kong Golf Club. Above: A map of the cross-country eventing site.
We have just spoken with Elizabeth Beckett, who is risking her home to defend the British Constitution. (See post below.) Her court date, at which time Leolin Price QC will ask for an oral hearing of her Judicial Review, has been moved from May 23. As soon as we know the new date, we will let you know.
The crux of Elizabeth's case is that it is illegal under the British Constitution to tax the British people without the approval of their representatives in Parliament. The Council tax which she has refused to pay has assessed tax money for purposes never approved by Parliament. The money is being spent on the aims of a foreign organization, the EU.
As a result, Elizabeth has been attacked by the government. Subjecting a British person to bankruptcy or imprisonment for querying a Council tax is a gross attack on all our liberties.
We salute Elizabeth's courage.
To support her, please write to The Old Vicarage, Alston, Westmorland CA9 3RE.
"Noel Davies, who has died aged 63, was resident conductor at English National Opera (ENO) for almost 30 years and spent most of his career with the company."
His empathy with singers, his unerring ear and his musicianship allowed him to range over a wide repertoire, from Monteverdi to Britten, and from Mozart to Puccini. He had a gift for friendship and provided quiet, helpful coaching -
Within the company Davies was a friend to everyone – coaching both singers and musicians. He had the knack of encouraging both without ever appearing patronising or over-critical.
The man who could not escape - Lieutenant-Colonel Douggie Moir
Lieutenant-Colonel Douggie Moir, who has died, made repeated attempts to escape German prisoner-of-war camps during World War II. His frustration must have been intense, but he never quit trying, or helping others.
He "was a troop leader in 3RTR, part of 30th Infantry Brigade, during the desperate rearguard action to hold Calais. Then a lieutenant, he was captured together with most of the brigade and imprisoned in Stalag VIIC at Laufen, Germany. Later, when he was being moved by cattle-truck to Warburg, he and a brother officer squeezed through a hatch window and jumped clear of the moving train."
He spent the next five years escaping and being caught, as described here. "The resolution, courage and resourcefulness that he showed during nearly five years in captivity were recognised by a mention in dispatches in 1946."
UPDATED - Elizabeth Beckett goes to court to defend British Constitution
Derek Tozer reports that "Elizabeth Beckett of The Old Vicarage, Alston, Westmorland CA9 3RE is to appear in the High Court in London from 10 am to 11 on 23 May, in her oral application for a judicial review of the legality of the liability order used against Council tax payers, the lady having refused to pay that tax". That Elizabeth will have her day in court is good news.
UPDATE - It is good news, but we have just learned that the court date has been moved. As soon as we learn of the new date, we will let you know.
In January we wrote -
The money raised for local councils has historically been used for local services approved by local elected council members. The money was never intended to be used for extracurricular activities that have not been approved by the British taxpayer.
Last year Elizabeth Beckett discovered that her local council’s money was being used to fund a European Union-dictated regional assembly. To protest the expenditure of money for a foreign-mandated assembly that she believes has no standing under the British Constitution, she refused to pay her Council taxes, and has appealed the matter to the High Court.
In response the government has brought all its power to bear on Elizabeth, who is 83. She has received numerous letters from council officers and visits from bailiffs to her old home in Alston, Cumbria. She recently handed over a response to a Police Sergeant from her wheelchair. We support her High Court appeal to protect British rights under the British Constitution.
She is being represented by Leolin Price, C.B., Q.C, a brilliant Constitutional lawyer. Hers could be a landmark application and she would welcome support.
Today's Wall Street Journal, which reported on the singer Duffy (see below), also writes about cricket in India. The game remains, but with some startling changes. There is a new league, "the first ever city-based cricket league in India and the first to allow foreign players" (though their numbers are limited). The games are only three hours long, and "during breaks, spectators sing and dance along to Bollywood songs" led by cheerleaders.
After the Indian team won the first Twenty20 World Cup last year, two million fans greeted them in the streets, and the 'my city my team' concept was on its way.
It is not leisurely cricket on a village green, but Twenty20 cricket "was invented in England". The link, as long as it lasts, is here.
Twenty-three-year-old Welsh soul singer Aimee Ann Duffy releases Rockferry in America. She spent four years writing and recording her new album, which is already a hit in Britain and Europe. Her fans love 60s music, and think she brings it back, a little rougher around the edges.
VE Day reminded me of all the men and women who did not come home, who never lived the lives they hoped to live.
Robert Louis Stevenson, who died in 1894 at 44, lived a life afflicted by illness, but rich in adventure, love, and the finest writing. In his poem Requiem, which is carved on the stone marking his grave on Mt. Vaea in the Samoan Islands, he has no regrets -
Under the wide and starry sky
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.
This be the verse you grave for me:
'Here he lies, where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.'
There are times when the news poses a challenge to this website, which seeks to bear witness to the best, but here in yesterday's Scotsman is Detective Chief Inspector Mick Neville, calling a spade a spade, and we welcome his words -
BRITAIN'S network of CCTV cameras has been branded "an utter fiasco" for failing to cut crime, despite billions of pounds being spent on it.
Detective Chief Inspector Mick Neville, who is in charge of closed-circuit television for the Metropolitan Police Force, claimed only 3 per cent of the capital's street robberies are solved using security camera footage and criminals are not afraid of being caught on film.
The UK has the highest level of camera surveillance in the world, according to civil liberty groups and security experts, with an estimated 4.2 million CCTV cameras on buildings, shops, roads and stations.
Mr Neville told the Security Document World Conference in London: "CCTV was originally seen as a preventative measure. Billions of pounds has been spent on kit, but no thought has gone into how the police are going to use the images and how they will be used in court.
"It's been an utter fiasco."
George Orwell thought of a use for these cameras when he warned us away from them in 1984.
Get policeman back on the streets walking the beat, and consign CCTV cameras and police paperwork to the recycling bins.
The crew of a World War Two RAF bomber were reunited and buried with full military honours in the Netherlands, 67 years after being shot down by a German night fighter. Image: Ministry of Defence
It was a poignant way to remember the sacrifices that finally led to the celebration of VE Day on 8 May 1945.
We describe World War II here - and a few of the many gallant men and women who won the war.
Reporting from Geneva 2008, Autoblog says the Newest Lotus Exige 270E will run on anything. "This Lotus Exige 270E Tri-Fuel concept pumps out 270 hp on methanol, and can also run on gasoline or ethanol. So not only is it the most powerful Exige ever sold by Lotus, but it's also the most ambi-fuelish too."
Since it's a Lotus, it also runs fast - (0-60 mph in 3.88 seconds, a top speed of 158 mph, 270 hp at 8000 rpm).
The promise is that "Emerging technologies will allow alcohol fuels such as methanol, already a proven internal combustion fuel, to be made synthetically from CO2 extracted from the atmosphere".
Lotus, which was founded by Colin Chapman in 1952 (date corrected), is banking on the idea that an alcohol-based fuel derived renewably from atmospheric CO2 would allow society to transfer relatively easily to sustainable, carbon-neutral internal combustion. The research is underway at Lotus' Hethel headquarters in Norfolk, UK and involves input from the Royal Society of Chemistry's Alternative Fuel Symposium Series, the Low Carbon Vehicles Innovation Platform, developed by the Technology Strategy Board and direct discussions with the University of Sheffield.
What a joy it would be to leave Mideast oil behind. Faster, please.
Did Shakespeare hear this music by William Byrd? A video of Ernst Stolz playing Byrd on the virginal suggests he did. It's a strangely compelling sound -
Shakespeare certainly listened to a musician playing the virginal, and had erotic thoughts -
How oft, when thou, my music, music play'st
Upon that blessed wood whose motion sounds
With thy sweet fingers when thou gently sway'st
The wiry concord that mine ear confounds,
Do I envy those jacks that nimble leap
To kiss the tender inward of thy hand,
Whilst my poor lips, which should that harvest reap,
At the wood's boldness by thee blushing stand.
To be so tickled they would change their state
And situation with those dancing chips
O'er whom thy fingers walk with gentle gait,
Making dead wood more blest than living lips.
Since saucy jacks so happy are in this,
Give them thy fingers, me thy lips to kiss.
(Sonnet 128)
Byrd (1542-1623) composed madrigals, motets, verse anthems and verse services, and music for consort and solo keyboard. I first heard his sacred songs (sacrarum cantionum) in an old stone church in Portland. The singers, from London, left an impression of shimmering sound.
Responding to one of our posts, Athos wrote that a number of Catholic composers in Elizabethan England, including Byrd, had a tough time being heard on account of their religion. He elaborates in Chronicles of Atlantis.
Byrd first published his polyphonic settings for the propers of the Roman Catholic mass surreptitiously, but he was usually brave and open about his faith. He had his defenders, too. He and his family "seem never to have felt the full severity of the recusancy laws" (DNB) because his political, religious, and musical allies stood up for him. They included Lord Petre, the Pastons of Norfolk, Henry Howard, earl of Northampton, Edward Somerset, earl of Worcester, and Francis Clifford, earl of Cumberland.
Musicians who knew Byrd called him "Our Phoenix".
Byrd's Ave Verum Corpus, performed by Amici del Canto under Nigel Shaw, is here.
The BBC reports that the "liberalisation of the UK postal service has produced 'no significant benefits' for either households or small businesses". However, big business has benefitted.
Liberalisation? True liberals recoil at such a blatant misuse of the word. That the EU compelled the government of the United Kingdom to accept private carriers to deliver mail was a misbegotten attempt to destroy a legitimate function of national government.
The initial findings of the independent review "warned there was now a threat to the Royal Mail's financial stability" and a "substantial threat" to the collection and delivery to all United Kingdom addresses. Bryan Smalley made the same point on this blog on April 14.
Really excellent change, as Cat describes it, is something very different -
In 1840 Rowland Hill introduced the idea of drastically reducing the charge for mail sent anywhere in Britain, and having the charge paid with a stamp purchased when the mail was sent rather than when it was delivered. These common sense ideas were not obvious to the government which declared his ideas were "preposterous" and "wild and visionary". The last term was not intended to be complimentary.
Hill, who makes an appearance in the science timeline as an innovator, realized that the cost of sending mail had little to do with distance and a great deal to do with the time involved in computing travel costs and delivering the letters. Often they were refused because the charge could equal a day's pay for a poor man. Naturally the government, which controlled postal revenues, was squeezing as much money as it could from the service.
The Penny Black, the first adhesive stamp used in a public postal system, was issued 1 May and used from 6 May 1840.
With the establishment of the penny post in 1840, the inequities, expenses, and inconveniences of the post were all rapidly resolved, and three times as many letters were posted. Government revenues increased, too. Government has yet to understand these fruitful paradoxes.
Hill, his Surveyor for the Western District novelist Anthony Trollope, and the people of Britain went on to establish and redesign the pillar box we described here.
It's a pity that a government unable to get much right cannot leave well enough alone.
Thanks to John Kelly and Idris Francis for bringing this to our attention.
This beech by the green in old Feniton was planted in 1937 to commemorate the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Image: Feniton Parish Council
In 1664 John Evelyn published Sylva, A Discourse of Forest Trees, and urged reforestation. It's thought that a million trees were planted in Britain as a result.
I think my favourite tree might be the beech. I climbed one to the top when I was five, and I've planted a weeping copper beech.
Really, I wish I had planted more trees, and it's not too late. It's never too late, especially if you like the idea that a child you will never know will glory in its shade and light and climb it and drink in the air it makes.
1) Revolt against taxes by Lady Godiva
2) Revolt against Edward I's taxes by the Good Parliament
3) The Great Revolt of 1381 against the poll tax
4) Revolt of the Five Knights against Charles I, who demanded forced loans
5) American Revolt against taxes and lack of representation
6) Revolt against the Corn Laws, which were tariffs
7) Revolt against Margaret Thatcher's poll tax
8 ) Growing revolt against Gordon Brown's stealth taxes, income taxes, pension tax, and business taxes
An incomplete list. The first seven revolts were successful.
The winds dropped, his teammates paced him, and Roger Bannister broke the 4-minute mile.
Norris McWhirter, co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records, made the announcement at the track.
Long afterwards, Bannister wrote about that run, "No longer conscious of my movement, I discovered a new unity with nature. I had found a new source of power and beauty, a source I never dreamt existed."
He spent the next fifty years treating patients and making contributions to neurology.
Iain Murray reports, "Boris Johnson's first senior appointment is to make Ray Lewis a Deputy Mayor with an important role in tackling youth crime. For those who don't know him, Ray runs the East Side Young Leaders Academy, which is a charity specialising in giving young black kids a real education. It relies on more traditional teaching methods and discipline plays a key role. . ."
If we read the Telegraph correctly, the majority of Scots do not want to leave the United Kingdom, but many of them wish to 'stand tall' and vote on the constitutional question of their independence. Consequently, "Wendy Alexander, the Scottish Labour leader, announced her backing for a 'Yes or No' vote on independence."
She did so without consulting PM Brown. As she is aware, he is not a supporter of referendums.
Not surprisingly her action "horrified" Westminster Labour, and was called a freelance operation.
The move put First Minister Salmond on his back foot in Scotland. He has been calling for a referendum for years, but he is afraid he will lose it if the vote is called immediately.
Ms Alexander, who does not want the referendum to succeed, does not want to see it dragged to victory in 2010 by the PM's lack of popularity.
We like freelance operations, but we wonder about the unintended consequences of this one.
And we wonder where the British Constitution may be found in all this. Major Constitutional changes are proposed - in the case of the Lisbon Treaty so major that the British Constitution appears unlikely to survive - and no one in the House of Commons or the House of Lords says a word. Am I missing something? Is the conversation occurring in voices so hushed I can't hear them? Can the men and women of Westminster and the Scottish Government be so clueless they don't know that Britain has a Constitution? That it is the foundation of their liberty, but only so long as they defend it?
I am aware of the Scottish people's passionate feelings about Scotland, but the very same people who want an independent Scotland seem to have no problem being part of a European suprastate that will, sooner or later, squelch Scotland and every other nation foolish enough to join. Go figure.
Elizabeth Scalia has written a meditation on the meaning of death, life, and love.
Elizabeth grounds her meditation in her family's experience of a beloved brother's dying. She questions proposals to promote assisted dying for the terminally ill, and asks whether "in suffering and death, something greater might be at work than our limited, earthbound sensibilities can comprehend". Her essay is trenchant and tender. It reminded me of Cecily Saunders. Perhaps you know the story -
Cicely Saunders nursed wounded soldiers during World War II. Among the men she helped was David Tasma, a young Pole who was dying in great pain.
As they grew close, David admitted that he wanted to make peace with the God of his fathers, but he found it difficult to achieve any tranquillity in the hospital. Focused on treating those who would survive, the hospital shunted the dying about, often without proper pain relief. Cecily felt she must find a way to help him. She was falling in love with him - but was helpless even to relieve his pain.
David died in the hospital. He left Cicely all he had - ÂŁ500 - so she could continue her education. Inspired, she became a doctor, and tried to learn everything she could about end-of-life care. Then, singlehandedly, she launched a campaign to build the world's first modern hospice, St Christopher's, in London.
Despite apathy and hostility, Cecily succeeded. She built St Christopher's with light and airy wards, welcomed people of all religious faiths, or none, improved pain relief, and cared for the dying and their families.
St Christopher's became a model for the modern hospice, a place where people love, where something greater is at work.
The Times reports that "the world’s first deep-water device to generate electricity from the tides on a commercial scale is due to start operating within weeks".
The 1,000-ton double turbine for tidal power generation has been lowered into place, and the operation to fix it to the seabed has begun.
When operational, the SeaGen Tidal System at Strangford Lough in Co Down, Northern Ireland, will produce enough electricity to supply 1,000 homes. Though this is "equivalent in aviation terms to the first biplanes", British energy experts hope to harness the "Saudi Arabia of tidal energy".
I grew up with a tidal water mill from the distant past. Situated on the edge of Southampton Water, the Eling Tide Mill has been milling flour for the last 900 years. In the 18th and 19th centuries, before they fell out of use, tidal mills were important to the British and American economies. They sawed lumber and ground spices and gunpowder.
The Pentland Firth. "Three million tons of water race though a narrow area of sea every second."
Image: Sail Tales
The so-called "Saudi Arabia of tidal energy" is the Pentland Firth, between the Scottish mainland and the Orkney Islands. Once the tidal technology is developed, it could supply up to 15 per cent of Britain’s total electricity needs.
In contrast to wind, tidal energy is predictable. Tidal technology does not impair the efficiency of radar (wind farms apparently do), and does not kill birds. The generators turn so slowly there is supposed to be no risk to fish. We hope this technology is less obtrusive than wind farms. We need energy. We need wilderness, too.
The British people do not need PM Brown steering them
The Prime Minister believes he is "the right person to take the country through these difficult times.” If only the Prime Minister could take one long, humble look at all that the British people have accomplished on their own, without the government helping and despite the government hindering them. If only!
Is a messiah complex an occupational hazard for a politician?
Disguised in a raincoat, sunglasses and a scarf, she rode a steam engine and planted a tree in Exbury Gardens. Has The Queen taken a leaf from James Bond? How often has she moved in disguise through her kingdom? And what did she do with her handbag? The Times answers none of these interesting questions.
Watered by more than 22 miles of underground pipes, the gardens are famously beautiful. They are also the source of Exbury azaelas.
The 'toff' who revived jazz - in Britain - Humphrey Lyttleton
As long as I stay away from the political programmes, there is much I relish on the BBC. One of my favourite radio programmes was the comedy panel game show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, which Humph chaired to hilarious effect beginning in 1972.
A cartoonist who became a terrific trumpeter, Humphrey Lyttleton revived traditional New Orleans jazz in Britain in the Fifties. The son of an Eton housemaster, and shy, he initially gave the other players the feeling he was a 'toff', but they soon fell in love with his sound and his wry kindness. He led Britain's most popular jazz band for the next fifty years.
Humph was admired by Louis Armstrong, played with him, and brought his band down to the station to play Armstrong a farewell. (He considered Armstrong the world's greatest trumpeter.)
In 1968, Humph went to the States to play a selection of jazz numbers which were broadcast live to the crew of the Apollo 8 spacecraft.
In the Seventies, wondering what on earth he was doing, he became the unlikely host of the Haven't A Clue game show. He led the successful show for the next thirty years.
Humph kept on playing jazz until he died - "Dr Gig will take care of you," he liked to say.
The following video tributes begin a little slowly, but as Humph recalls landing at Salerno in World War II, playing trumpet in front of Buckingham Palace during VE Day celebrations, and making music with his band, the videos take off.
Vox Zambezi
"Amongst the first rank of any chamber group which I have ever heard."
Quintin Ballardie, Aritistic Director, English Chamber Orchestra
The chamber choir of young singers toured the United Kingdom in June 2007, and sang at St Paul's. When Vox Zambezi returned home, they decided to tackle the English Renaissance music of Tallis and Byrd.
As they know a number of African languages, learning to sing in Latin did not prove difficult. A week of rehearsal with Tallis Scholars Director Peter Phillips culminated in a beautiful concert in the Anglican Cathedral in Lusaka on April 12.
Byrd's polyphony, which for centuries was almost unheard, is being sung around the world.
Many British-made items would be in far greater demand overseas if they were not overpriced by tariffs.
One of our many objections to the European Union is that it inhibits free trade. We are constantly told that we have more negotiating clout as part of the EU, but little New Zealand, composed of only four million souls, most of British descent, has managed to achieve a comprehensive free trade agreement, the first such pact to be negotiated between China and a developed country.
This is something that Mr Mandelson and his legions of bureaucrats have not been able to achieve. Once again, it is hard to see what benefit we are gaining from this suprastate that consumes so much of our tax money.
A report from the Badminton Horse Trials. The course set by Hugh Thomas has been called challenging. I am rooting for William Fox-Pitt, only on account of his name, I confess. Would Charles James Fox and William Pitt the Younger be pleased? Probably not! The video interviews Andrew Hoy. I liked his weathered face and hopeful smile, but his first place dressage finish was knocked away by the cross-country fences.
It was the 10th Duke of Beaufort who established the event in his Gloucestershire park so that British riders could train for future international events. The year was 1949.
Since then Great Britain has won three team golds and two individual gold medals in the Olympics; four team golds and four individual gold medals in the World Championships, and 19 team golds and 17 individual gold medals in the European Championships.
Brits invented football (soccer), rugby, cricket, tennis, croquet, badminton, squash, fly-fishing, and golf. Off the playing fields, they created a quintessential style – romantic, adventurous, and equally at home in the country or on the urban runway.
Over the last decade I have come to realise how much of all I value depends on ideas and traditions nurtured by Brits. I hope you will be inspired by what you find in this blog/website, and that you will help us to make it grow in brilliance and depth by becoming a Friend.
CATHERINE (CAT) GLASS
As an American who is the descendant of Czech, Irish, and English lovers of freedom, I am dedicated to bringing the courage and spirit of Brits at their best to you.
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The best of the Brits produced thousands of indispensable inventions, developed wildly popular sports, designed romantic houses and gardens, created astonishing literary masterpieces, lived with style and humour, tackled dangerous missions with daring and ingenuity, and fought with indomitable courage to establish and protect the free world. We aim to describe their superb achievements and extraordinary lives. We celebrate creativity and common sense, fair play and compassion, bravery and self-discipline, rational thought, freedom, faith, and wit.
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