William Shepherd

In response to:Thursday 11th May 2006

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:25:52 +0200

On calm autumn evenings when the barometer is high, the smoke from bonfires rises up and spreads out horizontally as if hitting an invisible ceiling. This surreal memory from many an October childhood is known as a temperature inversion. One of the most striking examples in recent years took place on 11th December 2005...the day of the Buncefield Depot fire. Usually air grows steadily cooler the higher up you go. But on clear, calm autumn evenings the ground quickly loses heat turning the air cold just above it. Higher up the air remains warm. It is this warm layer of air that traps the rising smoke. The Buncefield Depot explosion happened on a dry windless day dominated by a high pressure system. As the thick plume of black smoke rose it first hit a temperature inversion half a mile up. Eventually the fire and smoke punched its way through this temperature inversion, rose a further mile and a half before hitting a second warm layer and spreading out as a large black cloud two miles above the English southern counties.

In response to:Friday 29th December 2006

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 00:48:19 +0200

Im a big fan of William Shepherd but i cant find a documentary which was released about him, could anyone help please?

Please dont forget to check my Payday Loans blog

In response to:Sunday 31st December 2006

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 06:01:26 +0200

Hi, I too like the logic of not keeping house under mortgage it increases the pressure for the payment of installment every month. We can't invest the same in some more development plan.

Mutuo

In response to:Monday 10th July 2006

Mon, 18 May 2009 17:22:48 +0200

There were 11 minutes to go in a career that had placed Zinedine Zidane among the very greatest figures ever to play the game and had brought him World Cup, European Championship and European Cup winner's medals, and in 2001 made him the subject of a world record transfer fee from Juventus to Real Madrid of £47 million, when Zidane sprinted towards Marco Materazzi and launched a head-butt at the Italian's breast-bone.

'Of course the reaction had to be punished,' Zidane commented after he was sent off in the 2006 World Cup Final. 'But if there had been no provocation, there would have been no reaction. If I reacted, it was because something occurred. Do you think that in a World Cup final, 10 minutes away from the end of my career, I would do a thing like that because it pleased me?'

This was the provocation. After having had his shirt tugged all afternoon, Zidane asked the Italian defender sarcastically if he would like his shirt as a souvenir. Materazzi's response was that he would rather have Zidane's sister.

In response to:Sunday 17th September 2006

Mon, 18 May 2009 16:49:24 +0200

The evidence of a soldier who saw a 'shadowy figure' after the death of Private Geoff Gray was dismissed by an Army inquiry, even though he was '100 percent certain' that he saw a possible gunman fleeing from the barracks shortly before the body of Private Gray was found. Gray's father revealed to a reporter from the Sunday Express (May 17, 2009) that he had met the soldier privately on three occasions since his son's death, and that he did not misinterpret what he saw 'because he was young and understandably nervous' as stated in the Army Board of Inquiry report issued last week.

Private Gray's father said that 'it sounds to me like the Army Board have tried to convince this soldier and themselves he was seeing things.' The report revealed that a soldier on duty when Private Gray died had a 'warm' gun, indicating that it had just been fired, but this had 'no relevance'. Evidence near the body was also 'consistent with third-party involvement'. Families of the Deepcut Four are continuing their seven year campaign for a public inquiry.

In response to:Sunday 17th September 2006

Wed, 13 May 2009 09:13:58 +0200

The Army Board of Inquiry conducted two years ago into the deaths of Geoff Gray and James Collinson, two of the four young recruits who died of gunshot wounds at the Deepcut Barracks, is at last ready to report. Armed forces minister Bob Ainsworth is due to make a statement in the Commons on Thursday 14th May 2009.

In Issue Number 1236 on 13th May 2009, Private Eye commented that: 'No one has been held accountable for the appalling treatment of young volunteers who sign up to serve their country, or for the failure to investigate properly the deaths of four young people. Indeed, the bulk of the evidence gathered over the years to this day remains secret. The inquiry reports are unlikely to change that, but they may yet provide further material in the families' fight for a proper public inquiry.'

In response to:Thursday 11th May 2006

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 00:51:25 +0100

In December 2008 the Major Incident Investigation Board's final report on the explosion three years ago at the Buncefield Oil Depot put the cost of the damage at £1 billion. The explosion left 43 people injured and led to 2000 people being evacuated. Much of the cost involves compensation claims against the site operators.

In response to:Thursday 8th June 2006

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:12:29 +0100

I just came across this page while doing some browsing. It made me sad that David did not see his vision for the 'world wide web' that runs our lives today. He was probably the most clever person I ever met. During my Penrose days he always gave me inspiration and new ideas.

In response to:Sunday 9th July 2006

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 00:18:11 +0200

Derek
Why not ask him? I'm sure he would love to hear from you.
info@cultura.se

In response to:Sunday 9th July 2006

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 21:26:22 +0200

This brought back memories. I once had a driving holiday from the UK and spent several days in Stockholm and visited Radiohuet and was interviewed by Alan. It was even played on the radio and any recording I may have had has gone to dust. I have wondered what has happened to Alan as he is no longer on the list of contributers.

In response to:Thursday 20th April 2006

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 12:28:14 +0200

Nice to hear about Vemara - (gaff.rigged cutter?). I used to look after it in both Dover and later Rye, during 1960's into '70's. Loved the sailing! Hope she's well...

In response to:Friday 26th May 2006

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 16:22:47 +0200

Us in the correct places know better.
Well Dr Norton, you would like to think so wouldn't you?

In response to:Friday 26th May 2006

Sun, 11 May 2008 08:23:36 +0200

Tuesday The Thirteenth would be a good day for it...and May 2008 has got one coming up in two days time. So, just to cover my bases, I will be in Buckfast Abbey this afternoon singing Montiverdi's Vespers with the Dartington Community Choir. That should get the Blessed Virgin on my side...'sancta maria ora pro nobis' sung eleven times by a 120-strong double choir should penetrate the pearly gates.

In response to:Friday 26th May 2006

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 10:39:37 +0200

Oh come on Professor...that's taking enigmatic a bit far...why not enlighten us...and/or make yourself known at the Thomas Attwood Award Ceremony for Austin Mitchell on 22nd April...I'll be the one not wearing a dark suit nor a bowler hat, lacking a copy of The Times under my arm and with no button-hole for my carnation.

In response to:Friday 26th May 2006

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 08:23:02 +0200

Sir Michael Black-feather. Well you do fanaticise. Us in the correct places know better.

In response to:Friday 26th May 2006

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 13:26:10 +0100

Gods Commander of his Temple Knights (Knights Templar)

Michael the Archangel
St Michael
Sir Michael

Prophecies as it was so written so shall it be done

It was so written within the prophecies that one day God would once more send down from the heavens an Angle to give mankind one more chance to his redemptions for all his sins,

It was written that Michael would once more be sent by God to show mankind the ways of God and to have faith in God, Michael was Gods chosen Commander his Archangel keeper of his faith and keep of the grail, Michael who was there in the begging and will be there in the end?
As prophecies where so written so shall it be done?

It was also for told and written that Michael would choose a great man who would also walk the path of righteousness and though this man Michael would rid the world of its dark and evil forces that walk the lands in sin and wickedness.

This prophecy is coming now and will be for told in the month of May 2008 as it was so written so shall it be done.

As it was written as it shall be done.

In response to:Friday 26th May 2006

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 11:43:01 +0100

The Knights Templar
The Knights Templar were accused of infidelity, Muhammadanism, atheism, heresy, invoking Satan, worshipping demons ... Brig Gen Sir Michael Black-Feather,Kt ...
www.unexplainedstuff.com/Secret-Societies/The-Knights-Templar.html - 32k -
Sir Michael Black-Feather (1958) from the house of BlackFeather also See coats of arms blackfeather
Dismissed out of MI services for being through to be a member of the Tepmlar, is known as being Commander of the Knights Tepmlar England a secret organisation,

But this was never proven and he was never convicted by the British Government because they couldn’t find any evidence against him, He was convinced Jodi and Diana where Murder by services to defend
Sir Michael Black-Feather (1958) from the house of BlackFeather also See coats of arms blackfeather
Dismissed out of MI services for being through to be a member of the Tepmlar, is known as being Commander of the Knights Tepmlar England a secret organisation,

But this was never proven and he was never convicted by the British Government because they couldn’t find any evidence against him, He was convinced Jodi and Diana where Murder by services to defend.

In response to:Monday 20th November 2006

Sat, 12 Jan 2008 21:43:48 +0100

Give my regards to Brian Stent,who is a friend of mine. I have also been fishing alongside him,and nowadays work in Saudie Arabia,

In response to:Friday 22nd December 2006

Sat, 15 Sep 2007 20:51:27 +0200

hi nice blog

In response to:Saturday 16th September 2006

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 08:47:52 +0200

And then there are moose...the kings of the forest and Norway's national symbol. Norwegains are worried about the noble beast's propensity to burp and fart his way through the forest. The Kyoto Protocol counts twenty one tons of carbon dioxide for each ton of methane...and moose produce a lot of methane. According to calculations at Trondheim Technical University one moose lets fly with the equivalent of a couple of long-haul flights a year. And it's getting worse. Here's the science. The planet warms up, the snows recedes, the moose eat more blueberries and make more baby moose, so up goes the Norwegian methane count and down goes their Kyoto compliance. The ultimate perpetual motion machine. The next time David Cameroun drives a husky sledge across the arctic wastes he might think about shooting a passing moose or two. The perfect offset for the emission costs of his photo-shoot. And think of the beneficial side-effects as he shows off his rugged hunting 'n shooting credentials on the side.

In response to:Tuesday 21st November 2006

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 12:27:53 +0200

Compassion and tenderness are complicated matters. Somerset Maugham has something interesting to say on the matter in The Razor's Edge (1944). Nobody reads Somerset Maugham anymore. They should. He is one of the great 20th century writers.

In response to:Sunday 22nd January 2006

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 17:26:53 +0200

There are many plot changes between book and script...to the extent that the film does an effective job of vaccinating moviegoers against reading the book which has a wealth of interesting detail omitted from the film.

One key alteration is to remove the head of mission in Nairobi Porter Coleridge and focus the film on his Number Two Sandy and his direct line to Porter's boss Sir Peregrine. The High Commissioner doesn't play a big role in the action of the book...which makes him an obvious candidate for exclusion from the film script (directors don't think moviegoers can cope with too many protagonists).

However in the book John Cornwell attributes the successful closing down of the pharmaceutical distributor Three Bees to Porter's behind-the-scenes work [at Cabinet level in London] thereby validating Tessa's basic belief that change from within the system is possible...but only through men of integrity like Porter not by the Sandys and Peregrines of this world.

In his 2003 novel Next Michael Crichton cites a 2005 publication from Duke University Press in Durham, North Carolina as a useful source for information on Big Pharma:Global Pharmaceuticals: Ethics, Markets, Practice with Adriane Petryna, Andrew Lakeoff & Arthur Kleinman as editors.

In response to:Tuesday 21st November 2006

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 14:59:48 +0100

Below is the text of a private e-mail from a resident of Rye:

'I felt you may well have had enough of all the angry comments your Two Big Issue article has generated. It did, in some areas sound harsh but I don't think you deserved the degree of vitriole (grammar?) it generated. I totally agree with your suggestion that the Big Issue Sellers should be licensed. I went to Glasgow about 8 years ago and they were literally on every corner. I cannnot imagine that there was enough money to go around for them all. There was an era when it was suggested that some people selling the Big Issue were exploiting the system and making a fortune. I cannot imagine how they did so. Is mine an empty house? I do have a conscience there actually!'

In response to:Tuesday 21st November 2006

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 11:06:00 +0100

This blog was about the need for local licensing of Big Issue Sellers and the removal of the anomolous (legal) position of the Big Issue as neither charity nor business...a privileged position acquired by assiduous lobbying of Labour Party functionaries...Bernie Ecclestone would have been impressed.

My personal position is that I am in favour of a licence to Big Issue Sellers in Rye probably for 6-months with permits issued by the Rye Town Council...not by the Big Issue Foundation although prior vetting by them also makes sense. This should be renewable once or twice and have conditions attached. A local referendum approving the procedure would be appropriate.

Before my piece appeared in the local paper I would have predicted that the predominantly Daily Mail and Sun reading local electorate would have voted 3 to 1 against having a Big Issue Seller on Rye High Street.

My next piece for Rye's Own...appearing in the March issue...is about empty dwellings in Rye and the need for the local council to adopt the Norwegian policy of maintaining a register and issuing permits to property owners wishing to keep their houses empty.

After my two pieces I would expect the arguments in this small town to be much more evenly balanced...and much better informed...with a consensus starting to move towards my political positions on homes and homelessness. At this point I would predict that any local referendum would be too close to call.

In response to:Tuesday 21st November 2006

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 17:38:00 +0100

This blog on homelessness is incorrect in several factual details. I would expect a lot more humility, not to mention compassion.

In response to:Tuesday 21st November 2006

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 11:09:05 +0100

Jim Hollands, editor of Rye’s Own, published this piece in the January 2007 issue (Number 150). Three responses were published in the following issue and a further one in the March issue. Here they are:

From Heather Sutton of Winchelsea Beach:
Who does he think he is? Big Issue. He has a name and is a very pleasant chap indeed. He has as much right as W. Shepherd and the rest of us to be in Rye High Street at any time. W. Shepherd should listen to the song Streets of London then perhaps he would change his mind although after such a pompous article I very much doubt it. Bless him.

From Joan Porter of Rye:
Dear William. I am sure that people will be beating a path to your door desperate for your particular brand of heavy-handed intellectualism as you inveigh against the Big Issue and in particular the Big Issue seller in Rye whom you dismiss so disdainfully in your recent ‘think’ piece in Rye’s Own. His name William is Matthew. Like some old Tory diehard from the shires you patronise Matthew and what he does. By discussing him as if he did not exist you enter dangerous personal territory of your own. Presumably you have no understanding and care even less about how some people feel demeaned by the knowledge that they could not exist without benefits. Selling the Big Issue is a way of feeling a tiny piece of self-respect, self-reliance and independence, and being connected to life and people, however unimportant and insignificant any of that may be to you William. You say ‘…selling Big Issues is not a job…it is not gainful employment in any meaningful sense but a form of begging…’ It has meaning for Matthew but then you wouldn’t know that. Would you feel better if Matthew had a wooden leg and a bloody head, the dog was covered in suppurating sores, and they both begged for alms and lived in a cardboard box? Somewhere along the line William your soul has frozen over. You mention Virginia Woolf’s essay A Room of One’s Own – not Your Own as you refer to it – which discusses women in writing with a conclusion that to achieve greatness, women need a solid income and privacy. Perfectly fine for VW as she possessed both these things being left £500 a year by her aunt giving her economic independence and living the cocooned life of a middle-class intellectual and a lion of literacy. Hardly relevant in this story. Anyway William time for me to now go and beat up the servants and spit on my live-in tramp. As I feel your piece is far more deserving of a higher audience than a gentle local magazine I’m sending a copy of ‘Two Big Issues’ for comment to ‘Big Issue, The Guardian and an independent film producer pal of mine who is making a film on the new homeless. They will all be thrilled by you. Incidentally William avoid the excessive and unnecessary use of capital letters as it makes you seem like man-in-library-writing-on-green-lined-paper-to-HM-Queen; not a socioeconomic group I feel you would wish to associate with.

From Heidi Foster of Rye Harbour:
I am not surprised that WS is hiding behind his pseudonym writing this particular right wing article in which truth has been misrepresented. I am 'the fine acquaintance', one of the people he patronises in this piece and portrays as 'bless me/her' guilt ridden individual. I would like to put a few facts right. I managed a centre for the homeless and set up a hostel for them in Central London, not a Woman's Refuge though I was on their committee. The job was a challenge with rewards (80 homeless people through the door nearly every day) and paid my bills, it was hardly a good deed to feel holy. I did ask rather than quiz a few questions about working credit because of his experience of it. If WS knew anything about homeless people he would know it would not be appropriate for them. In fact I asked for a friend of mine who is a gardener. As WS makes all kinds of assumptions as to why people are and remain homeless I take it that he has not talked to the person in the High Street Matthew whom he uses to intellectualise a human condition and show his own ignorance around the subject. I talk to Matthew every time I come into Rye and thus know his story and reasoning. If WS only had asked me a few questions I could have enlightened him on homelessness, having worked and politicked in the field for 15 years. It would have been a more interesting and informative article. I am sure many Rye people would agree with me that Matthew does not take over the bench but everyone is happy to use it if they want to linger there. Matthew used the corner of it once when he hurt his foot and could not stand on it. I would like to take the opportunity to enlighten WS on his misguided idea about the Big Issue. The reason for setting it up was to give an individual a purpose, hope for something better, possibility of self respect rather than remain begging, pitied, spat on, dehumanised and rejected. WS says selling the Big Issue is not gainful employment. I would disagree strongly. The person buys a product up front which she/he then sells to people who choose to buy it. They get a Big issue permit which allows them to become a vendor and then have to negotiate with the relevant power to be at the spot they want to sell from. Having talked to staff at the Gramophone Record Shop there seems to be no problem for them. The money the vendor makes (for the hours they stand in all weathers it may not be much) but for many it is a way to get off or remain outside the benefit system or to pay for the odd warm night in a hostel bed or B&B. And yes some use it to buy drink but few are drunk while selling the Big Issue which improves their health in the long run. WS tries to justify his convoluted rant/argument, if there is one, by throwing in unrelated literary quotes. It doesn't impress me but I will use part of one to conclude. Let us all look into our soul including you WS and ask ourselves by what code we live by 'looters, moochers or producers'. And no one has the right to judge another. Only our conscience can determine the truth of this if we have the courage.'

From Mrs J Eccleston of Northiam
'Regarding William Shepherd's article 'Two Big Issues' on the January edition, I feel compelled to write in defence of Matthew, Rye's Big Issue seller. Has Mr. Shepherd ever taken the time to even speak to him I wonder? I feel his comments are extremely derogatory and uncharitable. It may be that our Big Issue seller has indeed been offered accommodation by the Council in the past but would have been unable to keep his trusty companions, his dogs, who he cares for very much. Or he may have taken up accommodation but found himself in a block of flats with alcoholics and drug users as his neighbours and therefore decided he would rather be homeless again. Having arrived in Rye approximately a year ago he must have found the streets relatively safe in comparison. The residents of Rye who stop to speak to him do not necessarily feel guilty as Mr Shepherd puts it, rather they are just more caring and would rather have this man have the opportunity to put his life back on track. If he could be found somewhere suitable to live I feel sure given the chance he would be willing to work to support himself. Matthew is neither a looter or a moocher.'

In response to:Thursday 21st December 2006

Fri, 22 Dec 2006 19:35:42 +0100

I think there is a need for a reality check -- the problem being that our Lords Spiritual and Temporal are now viewed as part of the heritage industry and therefore no longer a legitimate part of our constitutional arrangements. The reason that I have put the reform of the Commons central to my model is because the democratic meme now trumps every argument.

Fortunately everyone now accepts that our voting arrangements no longer deliver democracy in any meaningful way; however random selection is widely seen as both fair and representative (in the statistical sense). Seeing as such a form of representation would not provide either stability or expertise, the revival of the other estates would be necessary to fill these functional gaps.

The point I'm trying to make is that you need to start with principles that are viewed as legitimate. An alliance between the Archbishop of Canterbury and the future King would be seen as a palace coup.

This argument is fleshed out in my letter in the current issue of Prospect, reproduced below:
www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=8154

Paul Skidmore (December) is right to criticise the feeble recommendations of the Power report, but his own "1 per cent solution" takes one's breath away. You would need to go back long before 1832 to find a narrower elite. As Skidmore's critics rightly point out, his "small core of committed people" will most likely involve the usual suspects.

As Prospect has previously highlighted, a more democratic approach would be to build on US experiments in deliberative democracy, where citizens' juries are appointed by random lot to vote on issues after hearing the competing arguments of informed advocates. Patricia Hewitt has used citizens' juries as an aid to decision-making in health matters and Harriet Harman has suggested they might be valuable in foreign affairs.

But why not go the whole hog and get rid of the rusty Victorian ballot box? My book, The Party's Over: Manifesto for a Very English Revolution, shows how an executive appointed on merit could be held to account by a randomly selected legislature, which would be statistically representative of the whole population.

Keith Sutherland
Exeter, Devon

In response to:Tuesday 14th November 2006

Fri, 22 Dec 2006 11:34:30 +0100

My blog of Thursday 21st December 2006 responds to the these comments from the author of The Party's Over.. The Permalink to the blog is http://williamshepherd.blog.co.uk/2006/12/22/thursday_21st_december~1467544

In response to:Friday 15th December 2006

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 08:23:36 +0100

Co-incidence in the name.
I happened to be on Hamilton Island when Pr DIanna came to stay.
I even met her children, lovely little lads. I knew they were from money casue of the dress and relised that it was not their fther with them.
As I looked across the street I saw the gathering around the good lady and felt embarrased taht I was smoking a ciggie.
I now relaise it was cause Elton ws checking me out, he was hubbie hunting.
Later in the week at thelocal nighclub I was beaten up by security, the reason I had talked to another fellow nighclubber sitting there all in white, fabulous wealth in the costume.
I was told it was a high ranking Muslim princess but the veil could not cover the eyes or the hairdo.
It seemd at the time that thie troupe felt that they could and would do anything, have anything and anyone was fair game.
I felt ashamed that either Princess DI or Elton would allow such behaviour and I have to say that "guard" who attacke me that night was high on a cocktail of steroids and cocaine whilst I had just had a large cocktail of the alcoholic kind and was in no mind to protect myself let alone expect such an attck for sayng hello to theperson who happend to be sittingnext to where I also wanted to stand that i may view the sites from the balcony.
No wonder such a tragic end came, if it didnt happen there it would have happend elsewhere and it is a wonder it didnt happen sooner.

God bless her, it was my birthday the day they married (DI & CH)

LOL
William

In response to:Tuesday 14th November 2006

Sat, 16 Dec 2006 20:37:32 +0100

And a very thoughtful review it was -- it makes a change nowadays when the reviewer takes the trouble to read the book first.

You're right of course about the three medieval estates (Lords Temporal, Lords Spiritual and Commons) but an alternative "modern" view goes back to a document produced in 1642, when Charles I argued that the constitution of England was a "mixed" one in which the "three estates" of king, lords and commmons was balanced together. This is the Aristotelian principle that I try to develop in the book. (See Michael Mendle "Dangerous Positions: Mixed Government, the Estates of the Realm, and the Answer to the xix propositions", 1985)