Hidden in Plain Sight

Rousay at the Temperance Fountain in Duthie Park

Sometimes we are so busy in our daily routines that we fail to notice what is right in front of us. First, let me introduce Rousay, my collie, (rhymes with Wowsee). We often walk around a local park where she is more interested in making friends with other dogs or chasing a ball and I am generally lost in my own thoughts about the day or what is on my to-do list. I can’t say how often we have passed by the pink and grey granite fountain (pictured above) and not paid it the least attention.

On our last walk around the park I stopped to read the inscription.

‘In commemoration of the advance of temperance under the auspices of the Aberdeen Temperance Society in the year 1882.

“Thou gavest them water for their thirst” NEH 9:20 ‘

At this point the historian in me took over. A bit of searching found that the monument was planned as part of the opening of Duthie Park, the land for which was gifted to the city of Aberdeen in 1881 by Miss Elizabeth Duthie of Ruthrieston in memory of her uncle and brother (Thank you, Miss Liz. ) The granite fountain was made by James Hunter at the King Street Granite Works and dedicated by the Aberdeen Temperance Society to provide drinking water as an alternative to alcohol. As well as the main decorative fountain there are three pink granite urns, one of which can be seen in the background of the photo above.

In the nineteenth century tea and coffee were still expensive luxuries and water not always drinkable meaning that many took beer or spirits instead. The Aberdeen Temperance Society was founded in 1830 as an anti- spirits pressure group and were followed by a more popular (at least in terms of membership) total abstinence society in 1838. The aim of both societies was to discourage the use of alcohol and encourage water drinking instead. To this end, drinking fountains were erected near public houses or in public spaces like Duthie Park.

Reformers encouraged individuals to make a public pledge of sobriety and while the Societies’ membership had a strong religious motivation the reasons for individuals taking the pledge were often economic or social. To maintain adherence to the pledge the Societies provided alternative drinking premises such as the Mariners’ Temperance Coffee House and Reading Rooms, presented scientific demonstrations on the dangers of alcohol consumption, and arranged participatory activities such as processions and excursions. They also appealed to the law for support, requesting that local magistrates limit the number of operating licences granted to public houses.

I suppose the aims of the Temperance Society were commendable and the membership saw their work as a means to alleviate social and economic ills exacerbated by alcohol consumption. However, I can’t get the image out of my head of interfering busybodies lecturing the less fortunate without effecting real social and economic change to benefit them. Still, it is a pretty monument and I shall make a point of being more observant and engaged in my surroundings in future!

I shall finish with a wee poem, author unknown, I found while researching the Temperance monument:

Temperance

Here’s to a temperance supper,

with water in glasses tall

and coffee and tea to end with

and me not there at all.

Oh, and as a final thought, the full biblical quote used on the foot of the fountain, from Nehemiah 9:20 reads;

‘You gave Your good Spirit to instruct them.

You did not withhold Your manna from their mouths,

and You gave them water for their thirst.’

Perhaps, just perhaps, the ‘good spirit’ was not to be prohibited at all…

The 4th Estate is Letting Us Down

If asked what was wrong with the modern newspaper industry many of us would blame the political bias of a tiny number of right wing media moguls monopolising and directing editorial output. However, as with most things, it is less an international conspiracy of the mega wealthy and more to do with mundane incompetence, corruption and cost-cutting.

Flat Earth News by Nick Davies was first published in 2008 but the pressures of completing my PhD and then a complete loss of reading mojo has meant that I have only now got around to reading this exposé of the newspaper industry in Britain. The examples used in the book, therefore, pre-date the last decade with many of the stories referencing events in the 1990s and around the Iraq war. Most will be familiar to readers who were reaching adulthood at that time while others are less well known. However, they all point to a collapse of neutrality and integrity in news reporting and the effects of journalistic mendacity are no less apparent today. The details are not surprising but are, nevertheless, shocking when laid bare before the reader.

Davies initially and for the most part lays the blame at the feet of corporate greed. The desire to make money has superseded any commitment to truth-telling. As news staff have been reduced the need for the quick story has risen, pressuring editors to produce fast and easy stories. Fact checking has become impossible as the network of local reporters has diminished to near extinction and the inclination to break a story before competitors has escalated. In this climate, press releases from official sources (government departments, PR agencies, wire agencies) are accepted as accurate while uncomfortable or difficult to verify sources are avoided.

A study by specialist researchers at Cardiff University showed that newspapers were ‘routinely recycling unchecked second-hand material’. Sixty percent of quality print stories were shown to be wholly or mainly taken directly from wire copy or PR material submitted to the newsrooms and a further 20% exhibited clear elements of such material. After discounting a further 8% of stories which could not be adequately analysed only 12% of stories were shown to have been generated by reporters themselves. The Times were the worst offenders with 69% of stories generated externally but even The Guardian which had the lowest percentage was publishing over 50% of its stories directly or mostly from unchecked PR or wire agency copy.

Davies calls this practice ‘churnalism’ and ascribes its flow directly to the corporate desire for profit. The ‘news factory’ needs to produce stories quickly but the danger of uncritically accepting material generated by agencies and departments which want to get their own pre-packaged information into the news to satisfy their own commercial or political interests is starkly evident.

Furthermore, the insatiable need for ‘the scoop’ has led newspaper editors and journalists to employ questionable and even illegal techniques to get a story. We are all familiar with the image of the reporter rifling through the bins of a celebrity to find some metaphorical ‘dirt’, but Davies exposes illegal activities including breaches of data bases by a network of investigators outsourced specifically for such activities. Shockingly, Scotland Yard, the DVLA, banks and BT databases have all been breached, usually simply by blagging but also by bribery, in the search for names, addresses, and other details that can create a story.

The Press Complaints Commission are exposed as toothless which should come as no surprise to most readers but the startling inadequacy as a regulatory body is exemplified in the numbers. An analysis of a 10 year period revealed 28,227 complaints were made to the PCC. Of these 25,447 (90%) were thrown out on technical grounds without any investigation of the actual complaint, and a meagre 197 complaints were upheld by adjudication of the PCC (0.69%). Unsurprisingly the Daily Mail is the top of the complainants’ list.

Davies’ conclusion is pessimistic. A conspiracy of media moguls creating and sustaining conservative news to suit their own world view and financial benefit would be easier do break free from than the chaos that has overtaken the profession of journalism and as an outsider it is depressingly difficult to disagree with him. Flat Earth News paints a bleak picture of late 20th century and early 21st century journalism and it hasn’t perceptibly improved in the last decade. It is a depressing but worthwhile read to better understand the mechanisms of the British press generously laced with genuinely jaw-dropping stories of incompetence, corruption and lousy ethics.

Hello and Welcome!

A new month is a good time for a new beginning; a new location at least, but if you are familiar with my ramblings then it is simply more of the same, although the plan is for more regular updates. Once I figure out what I am doing I will link in the old blogs for posterity.

Why a ‘new beginning’ if it is going to be more of the same? There are a couple of technical reasons for a new site but mainly because I am entering a new ‘phase’ of life as a Pensionista. My twenties and thirties were spent setting up Bomber Command and bringing up The Bombers before returning to education in my forties and completing a PhD in Russian history in my fifties. Turning sixty seems like a great time to tackle new adventures and with it begin a new blog. I have no fixed plans, no goals or destination for the next twenty years but I hope to tackle any new opportunities that present themselves and possibly create a few of my own.

For readers unfamiliar with my ponderings what can you expect here? There will be the usual travel stories, although travel in the traditional sense is in short supply in the Pandemic Era. There will be book, film, and restaurant reviews, gratuitous dog stories and pictures, thoughts on current affairs and reports on pirate shenanigans with my alter ego, Cap’n Darcy, and the Piratesmas grogventures. I have recently developed a new interest in my family history and I will continue to dabble in My Dead Russian Guys history too. And, of course, there will be family tales from Bomber Command and my new adventures as a Baba to The Little Explosions. In fact, anything and everything that catches my self indulgent fancy. I hope you stay for the ride.