Monday, January 16, 2017

Six of the Best 660

"The data presented to Waverley suggested that floods like January 1953 were becoming more frequent and that the combination of factors that produced them were likely to happen more often." Concern with man-made climate change in Britain dates back at least to the East Coast floods of 1953, argues Matthew Kelly.

It's not only fake news we needs to fight, says Sean Munger, there's fake history too.

Jay McGregor explains how Margaret Thatcher killed superfast broadband in the UK before it even existed.

The History of Parliament Blog explains why clapping is not the done things in the Commons chamber.

"He anticipated a revolution in attitudes towards women in the workplace. He could see the start of a Westminster elite getting out of touch, not just on policy questions but also on standards of conduct. And he forcefully made the point that mass immigration and joining the European club had happened with minimal public consent." Matthew Reisz pays tribute to Anthony King.

Martyn Crucefix introduces us to In Parenthesis by David Jones.

2 comments:

Phil Beesley said...

When Margaret Thatcher privatised telecommunications, she (or UK gov) applied a restriction. British Telecom -- to become BT -- was not to be a television provider. Private companies would compete for cable or satellite telly. It was all about telly. BT -- as a privatised company -- would not get its hands on TV provision for a long time.

BT was allowed to work with other companies to provide experimental TV services. I own one of the Apple boxes used in the UK for limited services during a trial.

When BT was released from the chain -- to provide TV and phone services -- it was too late for a serious organisation to enter the market. The market was already owned by teenagers.

Phil Beesley said...

Those who wrote about Anthony King in elgies never said it -- he was a funny bloke.