When a friend of mine posted the red rose symbol, at first I thought that this Lancashire Day thing was one of those recently created “days”. But then some else posted this:
“On this day in 1295 the first representatives from Lancashire were called to Westminster by King Edward I to attend what later became known as ‘The Model Parliament’.
—o0o—
THE LANCASHIRE DAY PROCLAMATION:
“To the people of the city and county palatine of Lancaster, Greetings!
Know ye that this day, November 27th in the year of our Lord Two Thousand and Twenty Two, the first year of the reign of His Majesty King Charles III, Duke of Lancaster, is Lancashire Day.
Know ye also, and rejoice, that by virtue of His Majesty's County Palatine of Lancaster, the citizens of the Hundreds of Lonsdale, North and South of the Sands, Amounderness, Leyland, Blackburn, Salford and West Derby are forever entitled to style themselves Lancastrians.
Throughout the County Palatine, from the Furness Fells to the River Mersey, from the Irish Sea to the Pennines, this day shall ever mark the people's pleasure in that excellent distinction - true Lancastrians, proud of the Red Rose and loyal to our Sovereign Duke.
GOD BLESS LANCASHIRE AND GOD SAVE THE KING, DUKE OF LANCASTER.” 🌹
This supposedly comes from the Friends of Real Lancashire, whoever they are.
I’m not sure that where we live counts as Lancashire, even the old Lancashire. Saddleworth used to belong to the West Riding of Yorkshire before the county boundaries changed in 1974. Some people here still insist on putting a white rose emblem on their houses or fly a white rose flag.
Before that, before we lived in Saddleworth with its indeterminate allegiance to the white or the red rose, a group,of my friends used to agitate (jokingly) for Free Rule for Lancashire. Maybe we should start a similar Free Rule for Greater Manchester and see if we can’t rejoin the EU.
Certainly the Labour Party, if it were to get back into power seems officially opposed to closer contact with Europe:-
‘Sir Keir Starmer has vowed not to cross the “red line” of bringing back freedom of movement with the EU as he accused allies of Rishi Sunak of wanting to renegotiate Brexit.
The Labour leader was ruling out a Swiss-style deal with Brussels that would allow access to the single market after a report suggested the Government was considering the move.
His warning that “ripping up the Brexit deal would lead to years more wrangling and arguing” appeared to be an attempt to outflank the Conservatives on Brexit.’
Goodness knows where we’ll end up!
Meanwhile, the Conservative government continues mired in alleged wrongdoing of one kind or another. After the mess that was the Manston immigration centre, despite its having been emptied of refugees, there comes this extra scandal:
“The Home Office is routinely changing the dates of birth of unaccompanied child asylum seekers to classify them as adults, according to experts who say the practice is now happening on a “horrifying scale”.
As a result, many children are being wrongly sent to the notorious Home Office site at Manston in Kent, the experts warn, and detained in unsafe conditions for up to several weeks.
The Refugee Council said interviews with 16 children released from Manston revealed that even in the cases of some boys who had identity documents stating they were children, the Home Office changed their dates of birth to make them over 18.”
Oh, boy! Here’s a link to more information.
And as professions that never before even considered striking now prepare to take action, I read this:
“Teachers are being forced to take second jobs, including driving taxis, bar work and private tutoring, in order to pay bills and eat, headteachers and unions warned last week.
The NASUWT teachers’ union has found that one in 10 teachers now have a second or even third job because their teaching pay doesn’t cover their monthly outgoings. With teachers resorting to school food banks, heads are warning that the recent 5% pay rise will still leave many unable to manage basic living costs.
Garry Ratcliffe, chief executive of the Galaxy Trust, which runs nine schools in Kent, said: “At one of my schools, as well as those doing private tutoring, I’ve got a teacher who has to dance at the weekend in a Greek restaurant, a teacher working as a farm hand, and one doing shifts in a bar.”
Here’s a link to more information on that.
As a retired teacher and mother of a primary school teacher, I wonder how any teachers find the time to take on a second or, goodness me!, a third job!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment