Forum Activity for @gaynor-madoc-leonard

NADOLIG LLAWEN AMERICYMRU, ODDI WRTH GAYNOR

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updated by @gaynor-madoc-leonard: 11/11/15 10:38:34PM

The Profumo Scandal and a Welshman's part in it

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Today, in the News Review section of the Sunday Times here in Britain, there was an extract from Richard Davenport-Hines's book "An English Affair, Sex, Class and Power in the Age of Profumo".

I'm sure that many of you know already about the recent demise of The News of the World and the subsequent Leveson Inquiry. The actions of The NotW seem almost benign next to the descriptions Davenport-Hines gives of the press's actions in the 60s, particularly in respect to the so-called Profumo Affair.

The Sunday Pictorial (the precursor of The Sunday Mirror) had, as Editorial Director, a man called Cecil King and an editor called Hugh Cudlipp (of Cardiff). I quote from the article when I describe King's office at the Mirror Group in Holborn Circus, London. "King and Cudlipp taunted privilege and decried luxury; but their egalitarianism was undetectable in Mirror Group's brash, self-conscious offices, built on the site of a bombed drapery at Holborn Circus at a cost of 9.5m in 1961. There had seldom been an office so status-conscious in its interior arrangement. King had a private lift to his ninth-floor office suite, which, as a symbol of his paramountcy, contained an open-grate fireplace - the first to be installed in a centrally, air-conditioned office in a smokeless zone. King also had his own dining room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and luxurious carpeting.

Cudlipp had only a refrigerator, bedroom, private lavatory and shower; but his bedroom was designed as his "studio" to show that he was the creative ace rather than financial brains of the business."

The author describes Cudlipp thus:

"Cudlipp, the son of a commercial traveller in eggs and bacon, had left school at 14, trained on a Cardiff weekly newspaper and got his first Fleet Street job at 19. He never read a book if he could avoid it."

Apparently, despite marrying a high-powered journalist, he "exercised droit de seigneur by having sex with the wives of the men who worked for him.He liked to tarnish what he could not permanently possess."

They were not alone in bringing down both Profumo and the Tory government of the time but they played a large part in the story.

I hope I'm not alone in being utterly disgusted by their behaviour. I'm all for the press having freedom to expose what should be exposed but this article really shocked me.

updated by @gaynor-madoc-leonard: 11/11/15 10:38:32PM

Guns In The USA

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The Constitution was written a very long time ago and I don't think that anyone could have foreseen that there would be such a huge and diverse population and such a propensity for violence.

The answer must lie in education (both in the home and in school). As long as young people believe there is nothing better for them than belonging to gangs, there is going to be violence.

Guns In The USA

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Hallo Sergeant Jeffrey Morgan

Obviously I don't have the experience of having been in an American school, which puts me at a disadvantage in this discussion. I fear that the US has simply had too many guns for too long for any laws to be truly effective but at least the President is trying. Perhaps it's a case of starting with young people, giving them alternatives to gang membership and violence; there's an experiment being carried out in London now, attempting to do just that. It must also begin in the home though, just as any kind of discipline does, through example and firmness.

I'll be interested to hear your views on the subject, especially as you work in such a high crime area and have great experience of these problems.

Gaynor

Guns In The USA

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Last night at about 9.40pm, two men (or so it's thought) shot some bullets through the window of a home in the Cricklewood area of North London, hitting a woman and her daughter. Fortunately, neither was fatally hurt but everyone is at a loss to know what the motive was. As it's a residential area, there are thought to be several witnesses so we can only hope the men are found and the motive discovered.

Guns In The USA

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These are further examples of extreme reactions and complete lack of common sense and imagination on the part of officialdom. At least in the case of TV and film, computer technology can make it seem as though a gun has been fired so I suppose they could use replicas.

If the situation hadn't become so out of hand in the first place, none of these would be happening.

Guns In The USA

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Good grief, fancy anyone giving Dan Brown that much credence! I can see that hat being copied by Top Shop very soon.

Guns In The USA

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Staggered to see today that there are now "conspiracy theories" doing the rounds regarding the Newtown deaths. On the one hand there's a professor who claims that coverage of the killings was unnecessarily prolonged on behalf of the anti-gun lobby; on the other hand, one person is claiming that the Obama administration had the killings carried out deliberately to boost its anti-gun plans. And I expect these people actually own guns too - that is frightening.

Guns In The USA

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I happened to see something in passing today about a town called Kennesaw in Georgia. In 1982 it passed an ordinance that the head of every household had to hold and maintain a weapon with the appropriate ammunition. Exempt from this requirement is anyone with physical or mental disabilities which make it too difficult to do so, also convicted felons (for obvious reasons), paupers who simply can't afford it and people who have religious objections to doing so. Apparently the town has the lowest rate of violence in the county (but I don't know how violent the rest of the county is!!).

Guns In The USA

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I don't remember that particular X-Files episode (although I probably would if I saw it). Amazing.