aneurin's New Writeups

Borders UK (idea)

2009-12-05T21:33:37Z

Borders (UK) Ltd was a United Kingdom bookshop chain that was in established in 1998, went into administration in 2009, and is very likely to disappear altogether in 2010.

Borders Inc is a US bookshop chain which began life in 1971 when Tom and Louis Borders opened their first bookstore in Ann Arbor, Michigan. From that beginning Borders Inc gradually expanded across the United States as it developed a successful superstore model as it built large bookstores that averaged 40,000 sq ft which featured various additional delights such as a coffee shop.

In 1997 the company decided to expand overseas and purchased Books etc. to give itself a foothold in the British book market. Founded in 1981 when Philip Joseph acquired four leases from the receiver of Words and Music, Books etc. was a small London based bookshop chain that had begun expanding outside the capital in the 1990s. However although Borders Inc intended continuing with Books etc. as a 'small format division,' its…

Wrong Team (idea)

2009-12-01T20:34:05Z

The Wrong Team was the name of a song performed by Ishmael McLean and Rowan Simon which resulted in the former being sentenced to a term of four years imprisonment with the latter receiving thirty months. Which in itself would be something of a curiosity, since it is not often that the British legal system takes offence at the mere exercise of what might be regarded as freedom of speech.

It all revolved around the case of one Jason Johnson who was shot in an alleyway behind Cavendish Avenue at Ealing in West London at around 8.50 pm on the 21st November 2008. He was found dead at the scene, and a post mortem examination confirmed the cause of death as a single gunshot to the chest. He was twenty-four years old. It appeared there had been an 'incident' earlier that day after which Johnson, together with a group of his friends, had gone to the alleyway known locally as 'dead man's alley' to resolve the dispute.

The Metropolitan Police succeeded in identifying an…

Glasgow North-East by-election (event)

2009-11-19T16:34:42Z

The Glasgow North-East by-election was held on the 12th November 2009 as a result of the resignation of Michael Martin and his elevation to the House of Lords.

The constituency was described by UKPolling as a "grim slice of north-east Glasgow, scarred by gangs, deprivation and hard drugs" that included "some of the most degraded, deprived and crime-ridden parts of the UK" including the "heroin-ravaged Possilpark", and was therefore naturally considered the safest Labour seat in Glasgow. The seat had only been in being since 2005, when the old Glasgow Springburn constituency was expanded to include the most deprived parts of the old Glasgow Maryhill seat. Indeed the constituency of Glasgow North-East had never previously been the subject of an open contest, since Michael Martin had stood in both the 2001 and 2005 General Elections as the 'Speaker Seeking Re-Election' rather than under the banner of the Labour Party, and so neither the Conservatives nor Liberal Democrats had put forward…

Suzy Lamplugh (person)

2009-10-31T16:36:41Z

Susannah or Suzy Lamplugh was twenty-five years old when she went missing on the 28th July 1986 and was never seen again. She was officially declared dead in 1994, and her disappearance and presumed murder is one of Britain's most high-profile unsolved cases.

Suzy Lamplugh was employed by Sturgis Estate Agents, and according to her office diary for the 28th July 1986 she had an appointment with a Mr. Kipper at 12.45 pm to show an empty property at 37 Shorrolds Road in Fulham, London. That was the last anyone saw of her. Her Ford Fiesta was later found unlocked about a mile away outside another property on the estate agent's books in Stevenage Road. Her purse was found in the car, although the car keys were nowhere to be seen.

It transpired that a 'Mr Kipper' had simply telephoned the agency to make an appointment to view the £130,000 property and had given a false address and thus could not be traced. One witness remembered seeing Miss…

Bouvet Island (place)

2009-10-26T15:14:32Z

Formerly known as Circumcision Island, and a few other names as well, Bouvet Island is a glacier covered lump of volcanic rock found in the South Atlantic Ocean at 54º 26' South, 3º 24' East. It is around 6 miles (9.5 km) long and 4 miles (7 km) wide, and covers an area of 19 square miles (49 km2). It is often regarded as the most remote island on the planet, being that it is a long way from anywhere, particularly as the anywhere in question is Antarctica, which lies some 1,000 miles (1,600 km) to the south, whilst the nearest inhabited land is Tristan da Cunha, which is about 1,400 miles (2,300 km) away, and the closest approximation to civilisation would be South Africa some 1,900 miles (3,000 km) to the north.

Nothing grows on the island apart from a few lichens, mosses and the odd fungus, although it is regarded as an important wildlife habitat being the home to colonies of the southern elephant seal and the Antarctic fur seal and numerous Adelie, chinstrap and macaroni penguins.…

Back in the Duck House (event)

2009-10-21T11:17:51Z

By the beginning of October 2009 it seemed that everybody in Britain had forgotten about the MPs' Expense Scandal, after a summer in which the parties had been engaged in a Public Spending Row, at the end of which Prime Minister Gordon Brown had finally been obliged to admit, that yes, his Government would indeed be obliged to cut public spending despite previous statements to the contrary. However, it was over the weekend of the 10th-llth October 2009, that the media suddenly rediscovered its enthusiasm for such matters as duck houses and phantom mortgages, as the issue of MPs expenses once again dominated the front pages of the nation's newspapers.

This development harked back to the decision announced by the Members Estimate Committee (MEC) on the 1st July 2009 that it was commissioning an independent review of all claims made by Members of Parliament for the Additional Costs Allowance during the financial years 2004/05 to 2007/08. (It later decided to include the financial year…