What is the The Black and Tan Summer

A story set in Ireland against the Tan war of 1920 to 1921.

It is a story of human themes.

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http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Black-Tan-Summer-ebook/dp/B00B5ASIX0/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1359302293&sr=1-1

Richard Branson's Breath of Fresh Air Concerning UK in EU

It is very encouraging for fellow Brits to voice sensible arguments for the UK to try and help reform the EU from within. Richard Branson's blog was very well worded and simple in its good reasons for staying in the heart of the EU and fighting to change the present way Brussels and Strasbourg work. We (Brits) should not run away from this. All euro sceptics correctly point out a great many things wrong with the EU, but using a UK exit policy of the EU is very wrong indeed. 

Everything that Richard Branson states in his blog are sound reasons why. Mainly the future - the EU will sort this mess out and the coming years will look very promising if we stick together. I hope and pray that more substantial people of influence will make their voices heard for the United Kingdom to become more deeply involved with the EU.

I believe that other fellow Europeans in all other states would want to change and restructure some of the EU's bureaucracy, but the other states don't use running away from the problem as a solution. It is no good voicing correct points about a faulty apparatus and then running away from it. Get in there (all the people of substance from across Europe) and change it - make it more effective and seen to be so. We need more high profile Brits like Richard Branson delivering short, sweet sharp to the point messages like the blog he wrote below. 

Branson warns against British EU exit

A British exit from the European Union would be 'very bad' for British business and for the economy, said Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson.

Writing in his New Year blog, the founder of the Virgin Group said global business relies on large trading agreements created by regions, not by countries.

"The EU is the UK's biggest trading partner. Its combined market dwarfs the US and China. For that reason alone, the UK must stay in to help rebuild the EU," he wrote.

"Obviously Europe has had difficulties, but so has America and most other countries in the world. The tough medicine that countries like Ireland, Spain and Portugal have given themselves will result in Europe being in far better shape than America in a few years' time."

Looking ahead, he said Britain must be at the centre to help the EU forge new partnerships with the emerging markets of Latin America and Asia - and to renew and extend our relationships with the US and Canada.

"Those powerful economies want to trade with a market of 500 million people and not the UK's 60 million," said Branson.

"The UK must not become a peripheral country on the edge of Europe. This will be damaging to long-term prospects of British business and also in the country's ability to attract new international companies to set up and employ people in the country."

He urged the British government to get together with Germany to restructure Europe. "We are in a position where if we take a positive approach, Germany and ourselves could be the key two countries to the restructure of Europe.

"Unless we do all this, Britain could be an island completely adrift in 20 years."

What If Boudicca beat Gaius Suetonius Paulinus?

What if the Iceni warrior queen had not lost her final battle? If Boudicca, the Iceni warrior queen, had defeated the Roman Governor of Britain, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, at the final battle along Watling Street; what would she have done next? 

To the north was the Brigante Kingdom ruled by Queen Cartimandua. She enjoyed friendship with Rome and was known as collaborator queen. This would not have gone well with the Iceni warrior queen and her Trinovante allies. Also in the south west of the Isle, at today's Exeter, was the II Augusta Legion. This Roman Legion had been held back from aiding Gaius Suetonius Paulinus. Maybe they were getting ready to evacuate - expecting the Roman governor of Britain to be defeated.

Which force would Warrior Queen Boudicca of Iceni have faced first after defeating Gaius Suetonius Paulinus in our alternative reality? Perhaps the last Roman stronghold at Exeter? For the Roman allied Brigante Queen Cartimandua in the north would not be going anywhere else and could be put on ice for later attention. That is if; the II Augusta Legion stayed put and tried to defend their stronghold at Exeter. These political consequences must have been real and acted upon - especially by Cartimandua. Surely she did not remain quite for she too was a sovereign of great prowess. Perhaps more so then Boudicca for she would have been Queen of the Brigante for about sixteen to seventeen years by the time of 61 AD.

What was going through Brigante Queen Cartimandua's mind? She would surely dread the prospect of victorious Boudicca and her Iceni horde, yet there is no mention of her helping Gaius Suetonius Paulinus and his Romans. Her exiled and divorced husband Venutius might have tried to side with Boudicca, yet if he did; there is no mention of such. Venutius had good reason to hate Rome and must have much to gain by joining Boudicca's uprising. He was always looking for ways to usurp Cartimandua and this opportunity would surely not be missed. There is no historical record of this, yet something must have happened among the feuding Brigantes while the Iceni and Trinovante tribes went on their killing spree of Roman occupied Britain.

The Brigante southernmost boarders would have been about where Manchester is today - maybe a little further south. If the last battle against Suetonius was around the Midland area; then surely Boudicca and Cartimandua might have been closer then expected in the final days of Boudicca's great war against Rome. Perhaps Cartimandua of Brigantes left her great hill fort and patrolled the southern boarders. Maybe she needed to keep her own Brigante subjects in check for it is plausible that they might have wanted to join Boudicca's rebellion. It was, after all, an intoxicating time of British victory over the hated Roman occupiers. How did Cartimandua's Brigante subjects become reluctant to help Rome if she was a good and loyal client queen to the Roman Empire? Did she contain her own people from rebelling and joining the Iceni and Trinovante by imposing her presence along the southern boarders? Would this leave her northern boarder with Caladonia's Picts unprotected (presuming Venutius had sanctuary here) All these problems must have weighed heavy and how was Venutius kept at bay during this time - if he was. Perhaps the rebellion happened so fast, that there was little time for Venutius to act - if he was in exile up north in Caladonia with the Picts. 

I would love to be able to go back in time and see Cartimandua of the Brigantes and witness how she dealt with the situation. What did she think of Boudicca? What did Boudicca think of Cartimandua? How did Cartimandua keep her Brigante out of this turbulent trouble? So many questions and no historical records to show. Cartimandua of Brigantes still remained in favour with Rome after Boudicca was put down, so she must have aided the Roman Empire in some way. Eight years later during the Year of Four Emperors; Rome held true to Queen Cartimandua and aided her escape from the Brigante lands when Venutius, her divorced husband, did overthrow her rule. They sent cohorts to rescue her and bring her south.

UFO Discovered Under the Sea

UFO Lying On The Bottom Of The Baltic Sea?

June 19, 2012

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Image Credit: Vaghauk/deviantart

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com
A Swedish expedition team has found an unidentified object at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, leaving some to believe it’s the remnants of an extra-terrestrial ship.

Scientists went off on a deep-water dive to debunk some theories about the underwater object, but were left with more questions than they had answers.

The divers found that the object was raised about 10 to 13 feet above the seabed, and curved in at the sides.

“First we thought this was only stone, but this is something else,” Ocean X team diver Peter Lindberg said in a press release.
The object had an egg shaped hole leading into it from the top, working like an opening. On top of the object, they found strange stone circle formations, which resembled small fireplaces. The stones were covered in something that resembled “soot.”

“During my 20-year diving career, including 6000 dives, I have never seen anything like this. Normally stones don’t burn. I can’t explain what we saw, and I went down there to answer questions, but I came up with even more questions “, Stefan Hogeborn, one of the divers at Ocean X Team, said in the press release.

Farther back from the object, the Ocean X team said that they could see a “runway” or a downhill path that is flattened at the seabed with the object at the end of it.

“As laymen we can only speculate how this is made by nature, but this is the strangest thing I have ever experienced as a professional diver“, continues Peter Lindberg, one of the founder Ocean X Team.

Scientists are currently examining samples from the circle-shaped object, and experts in sonar imaging are processing data from the “ship” to help shed more light on what exactly this underwater object is.

The outline of the ship on pictures resembles the famous Star Wars ship the “Millennium Falcon.”

Lindberg said the odd thing about the discovery is that there is no silt on the rock, which is an ordinary thing to find when lying at the bottom of the sea.

He also told Fox News that the object is “disc-shaped” and “appears to have construction lines and boxes drawn on it.”

Lindberg told the news agency that the Americans and Japanese “are much more excited” about the discovery than the local Swedish people.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Fanfare For the Common Man

 

One of my absolute favourite memories was of Emerson Lake and Palmer doing Fanfare for the Common Man in a huge empty stadium that I heard was in Montreal, Canada. This was when I left school and started work. I went straight out and began to buy ELP albums and discovered an absolute joy of sound. Brings back very kind memories of my youth/young man discovering tiny bits of the world days.

Jimi Hendrix and the V.I.Ps at Scotch St James Club 1966 - A True Story

 An old 60s Retro Britsh Rock Band Called the V.I.Ps





V.I.Ps' Drummer Walter Johnstone
is kneeling down in above photo

In the early to late 1960s; a British rock band from Carlisle began playing at the Scotch St James club in London among many other up and coming bands. They released a few albums and had some singles, though they did not break into the UK charts. They did have some success in Europe, especially Germany and France. One of the members went on to play in Humble Pie, and for a short time after 1967, Keith Emerson was in the band, though they changed their name to Art.

The original band (The V.I.Ps) consisted of the following: Mike Harrison vocals, Jimmy Henshaw and Frank Kenyon as guitarists with Greg Ridley on Bass and finally Walter Johnstone on drums.

45 Years Later 2012




Walter Johnstone Today in 2012
while telling his story of the 1960s
decade

While working on the verge cutting in Essex, England during this dreadful summer of 2012, we were sent a casual worker from the job agency to help with the grass cutting. The man was retired but liked to do the odd bit here and there. He was a polite and reserved man – perhaps a little unassuming. The rest of the gang liked the retired man and he has since been called back on several occasions when a member is on leave. He has a Cumbrian accent of North England, though he is Scottish – a real Reiver from the borderlands.

During tea breaks, while we sat in the van having a cup of tea, we would talk to this guy, wondering why he left the beautiful Lake District of Cumbria to live in Essex, South East England. He was interesting and spoke of many things. He had been an oil rig worker off Aberdeen and served time on the platforms at sea. He had done a great many things during his working career.

He had been working with us, on and off for a number of weeks, and finally, on Friday 12^th October, he told me a great story of some of the things he did during the Retro Brit 1960s decade. He said he was in a band and they toured a lot as a support band. They had released albums and had singles, but they did not break into the UK charts but were well received in Europe, especially Germany and France – one single getting to Number 2 in France. He said they had supported bands like the Small Faces and The Jimi Hendrix Experience band.

He said the band was called the V.I.Ps and he was the band’s drummer. I got out my phone and tapped his band’s name into the search engine and up came a photograph of the old rock group with today’s 69-year-old Walter Johnstone standing with other band members when he was in his 20s. He was taken aback - the long ago, faded away, the band were still on the net. They are on YouTube too, which surprised him, as Walter is not too knowing on computers. I was amazed too, looking at Walter in the 1960s next to the band members of the V.I.Ps. Walter is a modest and unassuming person and this past life of his came out casually in conversation.

Of the original five; only Walter and Mike Harrison are alive. Jimmy Henshaw, Frank Kenyon and Greg Ridley are deceased. Of course, other band members came and went when they were called Art. Walter Johnstone, the drummer and man I’m talking about, had left by the time the band was called Art.

Procol Huram Story

When Walter left the V.I.Ps, he did get a number of phone calls and requests from a man promoting a new band and this promoter said he wanted Walter to come back to London and do a session for this new band’s song - the group which was to be put together. This band would be good and he wanted Walter Johnstone to do the drums in a demo run for a song called Whiter Shade of Pale and it was to be by a group called Procol Harum. By this time Walter had left the V.I.Ps because the money was not regular enough and the band were not big enough. He was, however, persuaded to do the demo when offered £18 plus travel and lodgings back to London.

After doing the demo, he was offered the drummer work for the band, but he refused not having faith in the promoter who was guaranteeing £250 a week for the next five years. This was good money in 1967, but Walter had been on the fringes of the rock industry in Britain for a number of years now and had heard such promises before. For every band that hit the big time, there was a larger number, like the V.I.Ps, doing the support stints and earning little. The big break never came to every band and Walter had lost faith - especially when the promoter only gave him £8 instead of £18. He wrote him a cheque for the other £10 which promptly bounced when he got back to Carlisle. Of course, Walter Johnstone was shocked when Whiter Shade of Pale smashed the charts with Procol Harum. He said they were from Southend in Essex where we all now work, cutting the grass verges of the surrounding towns.

Jimi Hendrix and the V.I.Ps in Scotch of St James Club London 1966

Jimi Hendrix in UK 1966

Walter also told another Retro Brit story about Jimi Hendrix. The V.I.Ps (Walter’s band) was managed by a man called Michael Jeffery and this man also managed The Animals – a famous British band from Newcastle. They (The Animals) had come back from a USA tour and were in the Scotch St James club in London, where the V.I.Ps were playing. It was about the year 1966. Michael Jeffery (Manager of The Animals and the V.I.Ps) had discovered someone special in the Village (A place in New York) He was called Jimi Hendrix. The Animals Bass player; Chas Chandler also had dealings with Jimi Hendrix. From what Walter said; it seemed to be a joint interest between Mike Jeffery and Chas Chandler.

Walter is in the centre and furthest back.

Chas Chandler asked the V.I.Ps if they would let Jimi Hendrix play alongside them in the Scotch of Saint James club. The audience consisted of other British bands who liked to look at up and coming talent. Band members of The Small Faces, Kinks and other well-known groups would be in the audience. Walter said that he and the rest of the band said ‘ok.’

For the first song, which Walter can’t remember what the title was; Jimi Hendrix just played along rhythm. Then when they finished Jimi Hendrix asked them; “Hey can you play ‘Wild Thing’ by the Troggs.”

Walter said the rest of the band and himself replied yes, but thought it odd, for they regarded the Troggs as a pop band. People who played in the Scotch Saint James club regarded themselves as proper musicians. Walter laughed as he told me this, realising that perhaps, the V.I.Ps was a little too pretentious, even during the swinging sixties. After all; the Troggs made and sold records that got into the charts.

Well as the V.I.Ps began to play; Jimi Hendrix went on one of his whirlwind guitar solo acts and blew the V.I.Ps and the audience away. Walter said as he played the drums; he called to see the mind blowing effect Hendrix had on the audience. No one in the UK had heard or seen him until this moment, but Jimi from the village, across the pond, launched himself with great aplomb upon the unsuspecting Brit audience.

Walter laughed, “When Hendrix played, they (The V.I.Ps) almost shit themselves.” Evidently, Jimi made a big impression.

Walter standing on the left.

Is there a Tenth Planet in Our Solar System? (The Gods From Planet X FREE MOVIE)

Whatever you believe or disbelieve; this is a very compelling talk. I don't think such a thing is real, yet there is a part of me that would like it to be so. Because of this, I enjoyed watching the talk. Just because I remain sceptical, does not mean I disrespect the believers. I don't and will continue to listen to such things. Maybe one day, there will be stronger evidence because it is not completely wrong to believe that we may have been visited or are visited and watched. Watch and enjoy.

http://www.amazon.com/Last-Days-Thunder-Child/dp/1907140050