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INKYFLASH: ELECTION SPECIAL
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LOCAL ELECTION SPECIAL: CITY COUNCIL LEADER DEFENDED
Meet the candidates on campus tonight
Small Ads: Pedigree Puppies, House for sale, Auditor wanted
Readers' Letters
Issue No 292a Wednesday 3 May 1999
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Editorial correspondence should be sent to InkyText@lancaster.ac.uk
Subscription requests to Inkytext-distribution-request@lists.lancaster.ac.uk
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ELECTION SPECIAL
TWO LETTERS FROM LABOUR PARTY READERS, commenting on the piece by Mr
Michael Jackson sent out earlier today, are appended below by way of
right of reply.
LANCASTER CITY COUNCIL ELECTIONS
Meet the candidates
including Council Leader Stanley Henig
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Cavendish Colloquium Room - 8.00 p.m.
TONIGHT TONIGHT TONIGHT TONIGHT TONIGHT TONIGHT
Campus meeting organised by the Politics Society
Chaired by Gordon Hands
Head of Politics and former Lancaster City Councillor
TOMORROW NIGHT'S NATIONWIDE ELECTION COVERAGE ON BBC TV will be hosted
from Scotland by Kirsty Wark. Our own Professor David Denver (Politics)
will be resident pundit for the Scottish results.
2. SMALL ADS
------------
FOR SALE: Pedigree Cocker Spaniel Puppies, Kennel Club Registered.
Contact: 10524 811137
------------------
HOUSE FOR SALE - The house is in a Cul-de-sac Location in a very good
area of Bolton-Le-Sands village. It comprises entrance hall,
Cloakroom/wc, Large Lounge and diner, Kitchen, Three bedrooms,
Bathroom/wc,nice enclosed garden, garage, Gas Central heating. Room
for extension (subject to planning permission). 69,995 GBP. For more
information, please contact: etlfzai@taz.ericsson.se or 01487 840960
(after 4.00 PM).
-------------------
AUDITOR WANTED: Is there anyone qualified and willing to audit the
accounts of a small voluntary organization sometime over the next
month? It is just a few hours work, payment negotiable. Please contact
Mary Hamilton (e-mail m.hamilton@lancaster.ac.uk)
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3. READERS' LETTERS
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Heaven's above, is nowhere safe from Michael Jackson?
Having spent a large part of the past eight years as a Member of
Lancaster City Council, and having decided to stand down at the 1999
elections in order to spend more time with my research and essay
marking, I was enjoying a brief lunchtime break on May 5th (the day
before the elections). This enabled a period of reflection and a browse
through my e-mail.
There is much that I will miss when I cease to be a Council Member but
there is much to be looked forward to. Being free of the ever more
paranoid observations of one Michael Jackson of Hest Bank in his
frequent rants in the local press was most certainly one of the latter.
Now he turns up in InkyText! For Heaven's sake, ban him or I might as
well try to encourage a by-election and get back into local politics
again.
Colin Rogers
----------------------------
Mr Jackson might not be the King Of Pop(tm) but he certainly would be
a leading candidate for King of Pap. His one-man vendetta has already
resulted in creating work for the local constabulary, who have been
investigating the dissemination of election literature without an
imprint. For those lucky enough to escape this 'literature', it is a
much less erudite version of Mr Jackson's letter in the last INKYTEXT.
Mr Jackson was once a member of the Labour Party and some people seem
to have gained the impression that he still is.
Heaven knows what Cllr. Henig has done to offend him, but the
religious zeal with which he has prosecuted his case suggests something
out of the ordinary. I don't wish to turn your columns into a party
political tit-for-tat but it really cannot go unchallenged to have the
same inaccuracies repeated in this journal that are the stock and trade
of the Lancaster Citizen, and may I just set the record straight on
some of them:
The ascription of the entire Blobby fiasco to Stanley Henig is a gross
misrepresentation of the facts. It might be worth reminding readers
that 59 out of 60 councillors voted lock, stock and barrel for
Blobbyland, though many are apparently suffering from amnesia (this can
be cured via a liberal dose of 'reading the minutes').
As for the compulsory purchases around the market - they were the
brainchild of the previous administration, and were opposed by the then
Opposition councillor - Stanley Henig.
As a resident of Castle Ward, I'm offended by this malicious attempt
to enlist my support for such a disreputable cause as Mr. Jackson's.
Cllr. Henig was first elected to represent this ward in 1982, which
hardly makes him a carpetbagger. The impudence of Mr Jackson to come
all the way from Hest Bank to hector the electors of the ward (and
hector them quite rudely according to some reports) is staggering.
There are many reasons why one casts a vote in an election. A
hyperbolic fantasy such as the letter in the last issue is not one of
them.
Dave Boyle
St. Georges' Quay,
Lancaster d.boyle@lancaster.ac.uk
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The ultimate safety [of a nuclear reactor's pressure vessel] would
depend on exactly how many missiles were targetted on it. However well
a structure will withstand one explosion, what about the second? Third?
If an enemy was determined to destroy a reactor, they would deploy as
many missiles as would be needed until the job was done, and no
structure could be conceived that would resist infinitely. If one
assumes that tactical nuclear warheads were used, the number of
missiles needed might be as small as one.
The safety systems on the reactor are irrelevant. They would
undoubtedly shut the core down quickly so it cannot itself cause
danger; but the concern is the physical disruption of the core. A small
nuclear warhead would disperse a large amount of radioactive material;
smaller explosions might leave you with a rather broken building that
would be very unpleasant to be near.
Smaller research reactors would be far more vulnerable to damage, and
I wouldn't like to be anywhere near a place where a few kilograms of
radioctive material had been dispersed explosively.
Analyses of how the Soviets might target their large warheads in the
seventies and eighties, I seem to recall, explicitly assumed that all
civilian nuclear reactors would be attacked, specifically to maximise
the spread of fallout.
(Which makes me ponder on something I never saw discussed when Star
Wars was the thing - assuming all 10,000 incoming missiles were
successfully vapourised, how would you then dispose of all the
plutonium dust that would then be floating around in the upper
atmosphere and slowly coming down?)
Alan Phillips
ISS
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Professor Picciotto describes Nato's action as a clear breach of the
UN Charter. The point is that the UN did NOTHING to stop the genocide.
Should we have more UN "safe havens" to be massacred? Perhaps they
would have liked a deal with Hitler to continue with Belsen.
Max Lazarus
[NOTE: A minor point, but the UN did not exist in 1942, and its mere
existence is at least one tiny advance. Or would be were its principles
respected by all sides. (Ed.)]
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Unable to go to the 34th International Congress on Medieval Studies at
Kalamazoo to deliver a joint paper (reasons of finance and
timetabling), I leafed through the programme to lament the names of
friends I was missing, and console myself with the names of papers I
would definitely wish to miss. I was again astonished at the richness
and variety of American personal names - Zacharias P. Thundy was
perhaps the most euphonious, though I also like James Bugslag (variant
on Deerslayer, perhaps?) I do regret missing the two following papers:
Session: Deviations from the Medieval 'Norm'
Title of paper: 'Deviations from the Norm: Non-Standard Eucharistic Practices
in the Early and Medieval Church'
Author: Robert Fuqua, Iowa State.
Session: The Politics of Body Parts
Title of paper: 'The Politics of Body Parts: Quartering and Dismembering'
Author: Joelle Rollo-Koster, Univ. of Rhode Island.
Meg Twycross
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I was puzzled to read about the National Demonstration in London on 8
May against the Balkans War. Wouldn't it be more appropriate if the
coach from the underpass went to Belgrade and the protest made to Mr
Milosovic?
Roger Lincoln
[NOTE: Not a terribly clever comment, and especially unfunny to
Serbian civilians, one imagines. The small armada, hundreds of
aircraft, several thousand troops and goodness knows how many bombs we
have already sent make our protest against the Serbian army's
activities amply clear. Altogether murkier are the patently
unrealisable 'demands' being made in our name (that includes yours),
e.g. that families be allowed to return to homes that no longer exist.
Protesting is the stuff or democracy, and at least one thin barrier
between our government and that of Mr M. (Ed.)]
-----------------------------------
ENDS