Monthly Archives: November 2018

Records Banned by the BBC

On the 28th 0f November the Forum’s guest speaker was David Sibbald whose talk had the intriguing title of Records Banned by the BBC.

In earlier days it was the BBC’s practise to ban records for a variety of reasons. The reasons can be classified under the headings of suggestive lyrics, unacceptable religious references, lyrics which may damage morale in wartime and references to commercial products.

Also a less obvious reason was the use of melodies by classical composers which involved the banning of instrumental records by bands such as the Glen Miller Band. This was due to the BBC’s Head of Music in the 1940s being the composer Sir Arthur Bliss who believed that classical music should not be used for profit.

David illustrated his talk with short extracts of the records involved starting with Henry Hall’s Radio Times (a commercial publication).

In the USA there was no such restrictions but eventually it was realised that the BBC’s rules were affecting record sales and there are many instances of English versions of songs being produced with slight changes to the American words.

Some of Cole Porter’s songs were, however, beyond redemption.

Forum Chairman Mike Earle thanked David Sibbald for an entertaining and amusing talk.

Travels with the United Nations

On the 21^st of November the Forum welcomed Brian Taylor to speak about Travels with the United Nations.

After a career with West Yorkshire Police where he was Head of the Drugs Squad he joined the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime as Chief of the Anti-Trafficking Section. He summarised the history of the United Nations from its foundation in 1945 with 50 member states to the present day with 193 members employing 44,000 people.

The section in which he was employed is based in Vienna and investigates drug and human trafficking as well as money laundering and terrorism. His role involved travelling all around the world and he described a selection of the exotic and disturbed places which he had visited.

The two most disturbed places were Iraq and Afghanistan, at the latter he visited a UN facility which was bombed shortly afterwards with considerable loss of life to its staff.

He also visited Bosnia and witnessed the extensive damage to Sarajevo and the dreadful poverty of its inhabitants. He visited the “Stan” states in Central Asia where the UN set up an organisation similar to Europol to enable exchange of police information.

A lively question and answer session followed which Chairman Mike Earle had to curtail to allow members to go home. Mike thanked Brian Taylor for a fascinating talk about his very interesting life.

The Changing Face of Newspapers

On the 14th 0f November the Forum welcomed its guest speaker Jane McKeown, a former journalist.

Jane had chosen The Changing Face of Newspapers as her subject and began by informing the members that she would be dealing with the serious topic of freedom of speech where the UK rated as 60th best in the world.

The first instance of a journalist being criticised by Parliament for revealing unpleasant truths was in 1760 when John Wilks of the North Briton revealed that the words of George II were being altered by Parliament.

Jane then gave us a summary of how journalism has changed along with the improvements in communication, the changes in printing technology and the introduction of the world wide web. Jane then detailed the problems to the modern journalist caused by political interference and other difficulties the press is experiencing in simply surviving.

After members had joined in the discussion Mike Earle proposed a vote of thanks to Jane McKeown for a fascinating and intriguing talk and complimented her on her passionate delivery.

The Munich Air Crash

The Forum’s Deputy Chairman Duncan Verity has an impressive collection of video documentaries, mainly connected with aviation.

At the meeting on the 24^th of October he introduced a video titled “The Munich Air Crash” which referred to the serious incident on the 6^th of February 1958 which involved the famous Manchester United football team known as the Busby Babes.

The team was returning from Belgrade where they had been playing in the European Champions Cup when their flight called into Munich to refuel. In wintery weather conditions the plane, a British European Airways chartered flight, failed in its attempt to take off and crashed into a farmhouse at the end of the runway. 23 of the 44 people on board suffered fatal injuries.

The blame for the crash was firmly placed on the pilot Captain James Thain by the German investigators and the video examined the justice of this verdict. Eventually the enquiry was re-opened and the cause was finally placed on the failure of the airport staff to clear slush from the runway although Captain Thain never piloted another flight.

The 48 Forum members present were rather subdued by this tragic story.

Wetherby U3A

On the 31^st of October the Forum welcomed its guest speaker Leslie Newnham, one of the founders of Wetherby U3A.

She started with a brief history of the organisation which is based on one of the same name started in Toulouse, France. This was witnessed by three English friends who thought that, with some changes it would work well in this country.

Where the French version involved professionals lecturing to retired members the British variation involves only the retired volunteers.

Leslie had been a U3A member before moving into the Wetherby area where she found that the nearest branch was in Harrogate. Having met Mary Bentham the two ladies established the Wetherby branch which now has around 1,300 members. It supports 106 groups whose activities cover a wide variety of subjects including cycling, walking, singing, playing the ukulele and folk dancing.

Many members of the Forum are also members of U3A but this did not deter them from taking part in a lively discussion and those not already members showed a great deal of interest.

Chairman Mike Earle thanked Leslie for a very helpful presentation.

You and Your Mattress

For the Forum’s meeting held on the 7^th of November the guest speaker was a retired nurse Denise Adlard. Her talk was titled You and Your Mattress and started with a description and the history of that basic item of domestic life.

The name comes from an Arabic word meaning something thrown down, mattresses being brought into the western world by returning crusaders. Denise described the various types of mattresses developed over the years and her difficulties encountered when trying to buy a replacement, a process recommended doing every eight years.

The subject of the talk then turned to sleeping and Forum members were invited to reveal their sleeping habits such as the length of a night’s sleep, single or double bed and the need for a daytime nap.

Denise stressed the need for plenty of sleep and compared man’s sleep pattern with that of other creatures. She ended her talk with the well-known saying – sleep tight and mind the bugs don’t bite – which refers to the design of old bedding and has no connection to insects found in beds.

Deputy Chairman Duncan Verity thanked Denise for an informative and amusing talk.