MikeStevens MicroBlog

"The Meeting" statue at St. Pancras station, London

Here's a reflection of my mate Keith

In my area of Leicester, UK we have a community newspaper, the Evington Echo. It is produced entirely by unpaid volunteers. In total about 100 people are involved, 15 or so are actively involved in the production and many others freely deliver 5,900 copies to all homes in the area.

The Echo is an outlet for local news, the promotion of events and services. We also have adverts from local traders. We charge small sums for the adverts, which basically pays for our printing costs which is our only major expense.

We would like to purchase some publication software and probably a laptop computer. I discovered that the software costs £1000 full price but is massively reduced to about £200 for charities.Our finances peclude us spending the larger amount now and probably in the future.

We thought we might be a typical charity and submitted an application for registration to the Charity commission only for it to be rejected.

Their rejection letter included this statement: "The production of a newspaper is not charitable since it would not necessarily be educational nor, on the whole, would it add to the readers useful knowledge" It added a legal case reference supporting this view, Re Shaw (1957) 1 WLR 729. Note the date "1957", surely things have moved on.

Newspaper editors might like to know that their papers are neither educational nor do they add to their readers useful knowledge.

Personally, I's surprised by this rejection,not the least because I spent many many hours poring over two 20 page forms and documents, before actually filling in another large application document.

I'm at a slight loss where our next step should be. There is an appeal mechanism but it asks for new material not previously submiited.

Any help would be appreciated.

Just think, if Time didn't exist everything would happen all at once. Imagine all the blogs arriving together!

Which team do these guys play Rugby for: Seveali'i, Mapadua, Tagicakibau, and Hala'ufia?

Clue: They play in green and are a "London" club.

It's my mate Keith's 70th Birthday so we decided to "launch" him. So here's my attempt.

(It looks phallic)

I'll blog how it / he goes.

I'm writing an article about the effects that the Internet and Web are having and will have on newspapers.

I'd appreciate your thoughts.

Before I started blogging I used to finish my sentences but now I.....

Jack Driver

A colleague and friend of mine, Jack Driver, passed away recently. He worked at Leicester University for many years at the same time as I did. We were bridge partners for several years. We also played cricket together for the University staff team. Whilst having a shower after the games, Jack's body showed “signs of wear”, in the form of many scars. When I asked what caused them he brushed off my question saying something about “the war.”

A few years ago at a social occasion, after we had both retired, Jack said to me out of the blue “I won a medal”. I asked him what it was and he replied “the Military Medal” He still refused to tell me what action was involved on his part.

He died this year, 2009, aged 87.

I happened to be having a meeting with Mark Charlton, the News Editor of our main newspaper, the Leicester Mercury. After our meeting,as I was leaving and as an almost jocular aside I said “Do you want some news Mark?”. He said Yes and I told him about Jack's recent death and the award of his medal.

A few days later an article duly appeared in the Leicester Mercury. In it there were more details of Jack's life. http://tiny.cc/VIly2

Included in this tribute were some words from the citation which accompanied Jack's award.

"Throughout the fight Pte Driver set a high standard of courage and with complete disregard for his own safety stood up to enemy fire and received it at point blank range."

To my delight and surprise an obituary then appeared in the Daily Telegraph no less.

http://tiny.cc/7LPnL

This obituary included more information about the action which Jack was loathe to talk about.

Driver's job was to advance to throw his grenades, which he duly did. Then, standing up to enemy fire at point-blank range, he killed several Germans. When his ammunition was spent, he seized the weapon of a wounded comrade and continued firing as a shower of grenades was hurled back at him.

The attack proved unsuccessful, but the citation for Driver's MM said that he acted without regard for his own safety and that his fine example was largely instrumental in the platoon's inflicting considerable casualties on the enemy.

I also submitted a few words to the Leicester Mercury which were included in the bereavements section:

DRIVER Jack. A good mate, unique bridge player, cricketer with a suspect action and all-round good bloke. Hero too, awarded the Military Medal. Seven No trumps.
He told me that he was ordered to report to Buckingham Palace to collect his medal from King George VI. He was given seven shillings and sixpence for his expenses! (That's 35p today)

I'm aware that I'm dwelling a great deal on Jack's bravery and that's not my intention. It's the fact that almost no-one knew of these details, including almost all of his friends and family. I felt that it should be recorded in my personal blog.

He was a keen golfer and he mentioned a few times that he played regularly with another man named Jack. It transpired that they had been playing together for years when they discovered that the both knew me, indeed the second Jack was my uncle!

Jack was Chief Technician in the Physics Department of the University of Leicester for many years and prominent in many of the social and sporting activities of the University staff, many organised by his good friend Terry Garfield.

At his funeral, the hearse was preceded by a representative of the Parachute Regiment Association and a Guard of Honour of his veteran colleagues formed up when the hearse arrived at the crematorium. They stood to attention as the coffin bearing his Parachute Regiment cap and his medal were removed from the hearse.

Appropriately his ashes were scattered at his favourite golf course at Oadby

Goodbye Mate

There are three types of people, those who can count and those that can't.

(Thanks Stephen Kear)