#Kinder Scout Trespass

[almondemotion]

Breastfeeding and a general party political rant.

An unusual deviation into breastfeeding and Kinder Scout for the Odd Blog today. Does it make sense? Let me know.

I have never written about breastfeeding. Most of my blogs, when not discussing the outcomes of ageing and frailty or my place in the world reflect my everyday experience. I don’t have much breastfeeding experience. This week I learned that of the 760 babies born in my local hospital, only 189 were exclusively breastfed from birth, most, that is, 459 (or thereabouts – some of the data is…

[workingclasshistory]

On this day, 24 April 1932 the Kinder Scout trespass took place in the Peak District, UK, when hundreds of young workers walked on private land. Most of England's beautiful countryside was (and still is) owned by wealthy landowners, who forbade public access to the land. This caused great anger, especially for urban working class young people who enjoyed rambling in the countryside. So a plan was hatched to assemble a group so large that gamekeepers would be unable to prevent them walking to the Kinder Scout peak. Leaflets were distributed around Manchester reading things like: "If you’ve not been rambling before, start now, you don’t know what you’ve missed. Come with us for the best day out that you have ever had", and calling on workers to assemble on April 24. A key organiser of the event was Benny Rothman, the child of Romanian Jewish immigrants, who was active in the communist-linked British Workers' Sports Federation. 300-400 people assembled, and a whistle was blown, signalling the group to try to run past the army of gamekeepers who were armed with sticks. After scuffling with gamekeepers, the ramblers successfully passed them and climbed the peak singing socialist anthems like The Red Flag. After the walk, six young workers were arrested, including Rothman. The defendants, who were mostly Jewish and working class, argued that urban workers should have the right to enjoy "fresh air" and "a little sunshine". But the jury of mostly aristocrats and military officers disagreed. The ramblers were convicted and imprisoned for upwards of six months. The harsh sentences spurred further support for the right to roam. And in the early 1950s, the Peak District, including Kinder Scout, became Britain's first National Park. More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/7888/Kinder-Scout-trespass https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=614047630768456&set=a.602588028581083&type=3

[feckcops]

Swimmers poised for biggest mass trespass so far at Kinder reservoir

“Up to 1,000 swimmers are expected to head to Kinder reservoir in Derbyshire on Sunday in the biggest trespass of the water to date. The turnout will mark the anniversary of a mass trespass that helped establish the principle of the right to roam in the UK.

“The swim trespass of Kinder reservoir, situated below Kinder Scout where the 1932 protest took place, has become an annual event and is growing rapidly with the boom in wild swimming. The event is now in its third year, and swimmers of all backgrounds are invited to the reservoir, owned by the water company United Utilities, to exercise ‘the uncontested right to swim in open water’.

“The mass trespass of Kinder Scout on 24 April 1932 involved an estimated 400 people and led to six arrests. It is widely considered to have laid the foundations for the UK’s first national park, the Peak District, and helped pave the way for the establishment of the Pennine Way and other long-distance footpaths.

“Last year about 400 people took to Kinder reservoir to mark the anniversary, and greater awareness, along with the continued growth in wild swimming, means numbers are expected to be substantially higher this year.”

[stocky2016]

“Jacobs ladder” is a man-made stone staircase from the valley bottom in Edale up to Kinder Scout plateau at 636 metres, and is about half a mile of steep stepped pathway., it is largely due to its tough expectation that this description of “strenuous” is the “warning” the guidebook gives to unwary hikers, Jacob, in case you were wondering, was 18th Century farmer responsible for its construction.

The other interest in this walk was it was the location for the famous Trespass demonstration in 1932,

https://www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/learning-about/news/70-years-of-the-peak-district-national-park/the-mass-trespass#what

This protest led to the formation of the “National-Park concept” which gave public access to all the lovely country side which privileged landowners had exclusively enjoyed for horse-riding and hunting.

“Jacobs Ladder”

Climbing Jacob's Ladder, nothing seems to matter,
the higher you ascend, life begins to transcend,

The views and heights astound, spectacular on this ground,

whilst climbing Jacob's Ladder, to a chorus of avian sounds.

On Kinder Scout plateau, you bravely take a few strides

past the trig point and rocks, and take in the sights,

This is a long but worthwhile “walk the talk”

and the Kinder Scout experience will make your muscles taut.

Wind-eroded, rock sculptures, are strewn almost everywhere

we renamed a number, those with identities more spectacular.

“Other-worldly” the guide book defines them but to us they assumed

animal pseudonyms ranging from the polite to the vernacular.

From panoramic views of Edale, what photos you can take?

they’re quite awe-inspiring pictures from this elevation,

it's hard to take it all in, with the stunning valley below

the view from the plateau , a spectacular sensation.

Exploring the glorious Derbyshire Dark-Peak horizon

a land of mystical tales and well kept secrets
This stunning landscape of variety was unique with its
rocky mountains and dales, the beauty of propriety.

Exploring the Peak District, you can't help but feel free.

High above the Edale Valley, the early cuckoo calling from below

Progressing across the plateau this is no easy feat

high above the Valley Floor, a labyrinth of decisions to follow.

G.P.S. 18th May 2023

(Pictures self owned)

[calicos-critters]

8, 11, and 13 my beloved Ithelan

8: something written about your ocs regrets

[A letter written in loose script, tucked in his bag rolled up and stored in a special pocket]

Why had Dirthamen hidden this from me?

I should have listened to mamae. The death was my fault, though I am certain you would not have seen it so. You were kinder than me, for I would have blamed me had it been me who was murdered in cold blood by hunters seeking their fortunes in the bay.

I will make you proud by listening to the unheard secrets in the winds. I swear it upon your grave, ma falon.

I will not forget.

11: slander written about your oc

[A note written by an unknown agent, left in the requisitions room]

That antivan dalish is bad news, you know. I heard they kill and murder children of any humans they come across!

He may be good in battle, but he's flirting his way into all his information. Turns out sleeping with all the chambermaids across Orlais will get you the Spymaster's ear. In his case, it even turns the Inquisitor's head.

We should get rid of him, I say, give the rest of us honest scouts a chance.

13: something written by your oc in the two years between defeating Corypheus and the start of Trespasser

[A letter written on parchment smelling of Antivan spices and sealed with a small bear seal]

Inquisitor,

The past two years have treated me well. Dhaveira and I have formally accepted each other's courting offers and we remain inseparable between missions. Though formally still an Inquisition agent, I have much more time than I did before the Breach's final closing and spend much of it practicing my hunting alongside Da'dunala and his new paramour. It is good to be with my clan so often once more.

I have two children now— both wholly unexpected and a joy. They are too young to understand the thrill of the hunt nor my occasional absences for missions on behalf of the new Spymaster and I miss them greatly when I am gone. Though my time in the Inquisition alongside you has been fruitful and brought me the gift of a chance with my lover, you have no more true need for me with the upcoming Exalted Council.

I cannot say I will not miss you, for this would be untrue. However, I will not miss leaving my wife and our children on missions heavy with danger in pursuit of information for the cause. We look forward to seeing you, however, and will support you in a non-official capacity as much as we can.

May our reunion be joyous,

Ithelan

[Beneath his signature are several sloppy lines of paint, clearly done by a child]

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 4.24 (after 1930)

1932 – Benny Rothman leads the mass trespass of Kinder Scout, leading to substantial legal reforms in the United Kingdom. 1933 – Nazi Germany begins its persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses by shutting down the Watch Tower Society office in Magdeburg. 1944 – World War II: The SBS launches a raid against the garrison of Santorini in Greece. 1953 – Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. 1955 – The Bandung Conference ends: Twenty-nine non-aligned nations of Asia and Africa finish a meeting that condemns colonialism, racism, and the Cold War. 1957 – Suez Crisis: The Suez Canal is reopened following the introduction of UNEF peacekeepers to the region. 1963 – Marriage of Princess Alexandra of Kent to Angus Ogilvy at Westminster Abbey in London. 1965 – Civil war breaks out in the Dominican Republic when Colonel Francisco Caamaño overthrows the triumvirate that had been in power since the coup d'état against Juan Bosch. 1967 – Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when its parachute fails to open. He is the first human to die during a space mission. 1967 – Vietnam War: American General William Westmoreland says in a news conference that the enemy had "gained support in the United States that gives him hope that he can win politically that which he cannot win militarily". 1970 – China launches Dong Fang Hong I, becoming the fifth nation to put an object into orbit using its own booster. 1970 – The Gambia becomes a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations, with Dawda Jawara as its first President. 1980 – Eight U.S. servicemen die in Operation Eagle Claw as they attempt to end the Iran hostage crisis. 1990 – STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery. 1990 – Gruinard Island, Scotland, is officially declared free of the anthrax disease after 48 years of quarantine. 1993 – An IRA bomb devastates the Bishopsgate area of London. 1994 – A Douglas DC-3 ditches in Botany Bay after takeoff from Sydney Airport. All 25 people on board survive. 1996 – In the United States, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 is passed into law. 2004 – The United States lifts economic sanctions imposed on Libya 18 years previously, as a reward for its cooperation in eliminating weapons of mass destruction. 2006 – Bombings in the Egyptian resort city of Dahab kill 23 people and injure 80. 2005 – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is inaugurated as the 265th Pope of the Catholic Church taking the name Pope Benedict XVI. 2011 – WikiLeaks starts publishing the Guantanamo Bay files leak. 2013 – A building collapses near Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing 1,129 people and injuring 2,500 others. 2013 – Violence in Bachu County, Kashgar Prefecture, of China's Xinjiang results in death of 21 people.

[dwagom]

Just read a perfectly fine fanfiction that took place in Germany but something that stood out to me was a chapter where the characters walk across a field and is approached by the farmer yelling at them to get off his land.

I’ve come across this plot point a few times and I feel like it’s worth telling writers that most of Europe has some version of Right To Roam. The laws aren’t the same in every country but generally you’re allowed to walk and rest on private property like fields and forests so long as you don’t destroy anything or leave trash, but not gardens or fenced in areas. The owner of the land might put up a sign asking you to follow certain guidelines like no horses or keeping your dog on a leash but but there’s no real repercussions to not following the rules besides the owner eventually fencing the area off so people can’t enjoy it anymore.

I’ve personally walked around on a field while the farmer was harvesting potatoes with his big ass machine and collected the leftovers while my dog was trotting calmly besides me and he looked straight at me and didn’t care one bit because Denmark also has an old tradition of letting people collect what’s left as a form of charity (for my fellow Danes, that’s what “rev vi marken let, det er gammel ret, fuglen og den fattige skal også være mæt” means in the song Marken Er Mejet) This is just a tradition and not a law however so it depends on the farmer.

The very north of Europe like Norway and Sweden even give people the right to put up tents and camp on other people’s private land (except gardens and such). Again, the laws vary from country to country but as a rule of thumb you have more right to roam the further north you go and less the further south but if you want to write in a specific country look up the laws there.

[brightnshinythings]

From 2019

[randaahmed4012]

Apr 24 1932 – Hundreds of people take part in a Mass Trespass on Kinder Scout in Derbyshire, England fighting for the "right to roam", led by communist Benny Rothman and the British Workers Sports Federation. #KinderScout #KinderTrespass

[upsettingandunfortunateclasshate]

The review, headed by Lord Agnew, had included a potential expansion of the much-fought-over “right to roam”, which campaigners fear will not now go ahead. In response, activists are planning mass trespasses to raise awareness of how much of England’s land is out of bounds. The right to roam exists over only 8% of the country.

[fhithich]

Furthering the Right to Roam

Today is the anniversary of the Mass Trespass of 1932, when four to five hundred ramblers climbed Kinder Scout in the Peak District in defiance of the restrictions on access at the time. #RightToRoam

Today is the anniversary of the Mass Trespass of 1932, when four to five hundred ramblers climbed Kinder Scout in the Peak District in defiance of the restrictions on access at the time‌. Their aim was to establish a public right of access onto the moors that were privately owned for grouse shooting. The movement eventually led to the creation of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside…

[workingclasshistory]

On this day, 24 April 1932 the Kinder Scout trespass took place in the Peak District, UK, when hundreds of young workers walked on private land. Most of England's beautiful countryside was (and still is) owned by wealthy landowners, who forbade public access to the land. This caused great anger, especially for urban working class young people who enjoyed rambling in the countryside. So a plan was hatched to assemble a group so large that gamekeepers would be unable to prevent them walking to the Kinder Scout peak. Leaflets were distributed around Manchester reading things like: "If you’ve not been rambling before, start now, you don’t know what you’ve missed. Come with us for the best day out that you have ever had", and calling on workers to assemble on April 24. A key organiser of the event was Benny Rothman, the child of Romanian Jewish immigrants, who was active in the communist-linked British Workers' Sports Federation. 300-400 people assembled, and a whistle was blown, signalling the group to try to run past the army of gamekeepers who were armed with sticks. After scuffling with gamekeepers, the ramblers successfully passed them and climbed the peak singing socialist anthems like The Red Flag. After the walk, six young workers were arrested, including Rothman. The defendants, who were mostly Jewish and working class, argued that urban workers should have the right to enjoy and "fresh" and "a little sunshine". But the jury of mostly aristocrats and military officers disagreed. The ramblers were convicted and imprisoned for upwards of six months. The harsh sentences spurred further support for the right to roam. And in the early 1950s, the Peak District, including Kinder Scout, became Britain's first National Park. * If you enjoy our social media posts, do check out our podcast! You can listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, like Apple, Google, Spotify, or on our website at https://workingclasshistory.com https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1971356029716204/?type=3

[dry-valleys]

“ We ramblers, after a hard week’s work and life in smoky towns and cities, go out rambling on weekends for relaxation, for a breath of fresh air and for a little sunshine — and we find when we go out that the finest rambling country is closed to us” Benny Rothman.

In the second half of my Hayfield journey, I left the village and went up Kinder Scout, which I’d failed to do in 2011 but returned to on Sunday in triumph.

Kinder is the site of the immortal Mass Trespass of 1932, in which urbanites like Rothman, frustrated at their lack of access to healthy recreation, took the train from Sheffield, Manchester and other cities to Hayfield (which had a railway as early as 1866, though it closed in 1970).

They were met by locals who were equally frustrated that local landowner, Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire (whose home at Chatsworth is also not to be missed) had denied them access to the lands they regarded as their right of common land, building up a force of some 500 who climbed up (3) William’s Clough and took the summit despite scuffles with gamekeepers.

We followed their route on Sunday, traversing William Clough, and rising to see sights such as (5) Manchester- Benny Rothman would probably not have been able to see his city from here in 1932 due to pollution- and other Lancashire landmarks such as (in the background of 5) Winter Hill. From here you can also see (6) Kinder Reservoir, built between 1903 and 1908 to supply water for Stockport.

Then it was on to (7) Kinder Downfall, from which the River Kinder descends to join the River Sett at Hayfield (I judged it too peaty to drink from, though I did have a refreshing drink from William Clough), and more views, including of (10) Edale, which I believe will be my next destination.

Although the rights of the trespassers’ cause are now almost universally agreed (I somehow don’t think there are many left-wing activists in Hayfield! But the village now takes pride in the trespass) in 1932, a traditional conservative jury frowned upon them and Rothman was sentenced to six months in prison.

The tide was to turn, though, and in 1951 the Peak District National Park was founded; Roy Hattersley described the Mass Trespass as "the most successful direct action in British history" as he believed this to be one of the founding moments of the National Parks movement, building on the work of organisations like the Peak and Northern Footpaths Society, which has been active here since 1897.

In 2001, Andrew Cavendish (RIP, 2004), 11th Duke of Devonshire, apologised for the wrongs his grandfather had done; he is to be commended for acknowledging this, and for opening Chatsworth to the public.

So now the circle is complete and we can enjoy access to the countryside, but must never take it for granted and thank Benny Rothman and his brothers for giving us a view they weren’t themselves able to see, but it wasn’t in vain.

[sociologyontherock]

When “Demos” Didn’t Need Fuel Dumps

By Marilyn Porter

Watching the unending coverage of the so-called “Freedom” truckers protest, I am reminded of how much fun we had when our demonstrations didn’t involve huge great trucks or need to stop to re-fuel. The great age of “demos” in our era began with Martin Luther King’s March for Freedom – for the civil rights of all US citizens, something much more significant than the rights of a few entitled truckers to cross the border without being vaccinated against Covid.

I’m sure everyone in the MUN Memoirs Group has stories to tell of demonstrations, sit-ins and other peaceful protests, and sometimes not so peaceful encounters with the police. Here are a few of my own.

I was active in the Women’s Liberation Movement, as well as various left-wing groups at a time when there was plenty to demonstrate about and plenty of groups well able to organise demonstrations, marches, sit-ins, etc. It seemed that every Saturday in the UK we were out on some march or attending a teach-in or some other activity designed to bring about World Revolution or World Peace or to save some animal – whales or fish or forest or building or footpath access. (Remember the mass trespass to save access to Kinder Scout in the Peak District in 1932.)

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) had begun in 1958 under Bertrand Russell and allies, who organised the annual three-day Aldermaston March, where many a fruitful partnership was formed. Based in North Wales and Dublin, I was too far away to be involved and anyway had to face fierce opposition from my parents, both of whom were actively involved in Civil Defence activities, gloriously parodied in the comedy revue “Beyond the Fringe.” But by the time I became involved the CND had both grown and diversified, with some quite violent offshoots happy to attack the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square. 

Apart from marches and other demonstrations against nuclear weapons, key feminist interventions were the camps and blockages of the US Greenham Common Trident Base. There were camps at all nine entrances to the base, named after colours of the rainbow and adopted by women’s groups around the UK, who pitched tents and demonstrated noisily whenever a vehicle entered or exited. Very different cultures evolved at the different camps – some explicitly political but some Mother Goddessy or other less obvious priorities. The entire perimeter fence was decorated with flags, banners, flowers, clothes and anything else women thought to put up. The Lancaster group (where I was living at the time) was based at the Orange Gate, along with the much bigger Birmingham group. However, I was in the midst of a messy divorce so I had to be careful not to get arrested, which would have given my lawyer husband every excuse he needed. From time to time, small groups of women would climb over the fence and make a dash for the central buildings. The US Guards would pick them up and hold them for a couple of hours, and then, deliberately, drop them off at a different gate. My job was to drive round and round the perimeter, picking women up and depositing them back at their own gate. I forget how long the perimeter was but I remember it taking a good half hour to drive round it.

I remember little of the countless Saturday marches of that era or whether any were effective. I do remember ones in support of various strikes, including the massive ones in support of the miners, especially the ones organised by miners’ wives during the Thatcher regime. In the early 1980s, the Women’s Liberation Movement was strongly in support of, and in turn supported by, both organised and unorganised labour. This was, of course, particularly true of women workers’ strikes. These were often led by powerful, homegrown working-class women, such as Lil Bilocca who led the Hull fishermen’s wives protesting about offshore safety of fishing trawlers in 1968, and May Hobbs, who led the Night Cleaners Action group for better wages and safer working conditions for the office cleaners who worked at night in the early 1970s, and the Ford seamstresses who worked at the Dagenham plant who struck for equal pay with their male counterparts.

Photograph by Marilyn Porter showing her daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter at the 2003 protest in London against the Iraq War.

All these strikes led to lasting links between Women’s Liberation groups and unions and women workers groups, as well as personal friendships. These personal connections were particularly important in introducing middle-class women to the lived experience and struggles of working-class women. It also led to the formation of the Trade Union Studies unit at Ruskin College, which built links between trade unions in the Global South with activists in unions in the UK and Europe.

In 1980, I came to Memorial and soon participated in feminist and labour actions here. They were important, of course, but our scattered and small population meant that our marches and demonstrations were inevitably smaller and less immediately impressive. They were also shorter. I remember one held on a brutally cold February day when the only way to tell people apart was by their dogs – and we made record time in a sprint from City Hall to the War Memorial. And there was a sit-in to protest cuts to the Status of Women programs in 1990. But by and large we have had to find other ways to make our protests heard.

Not so in the UK, where they have a smaller land mass and a bigger population, both of which can still give national demonstrations the heft they used to have.

One of the biggest and best was the anti-Iraq war demonstrations of 2003. If you remember, the elder Bush was all gung-ho to go to war against Saddam Hussein on the basis of fabricated evidence of stockpiled nuclear weapons presented by Colin Powell – who has since said he was sorry. Tony Blair had suspiciously close links with Bush, based on their shared religious faith. Rumour had it that both had a Bible to hand when they talked. True or not, Blair had agreed to send British troops to help the Americans overthrow Hussein. It was, of course, a disaster and Iraq has still not recovered. The war moved to Afghanistan and we all know the subsequent sorry history. At the time, 2003, there was huge civilian resistance to the prospect of war in Iraq, including one of the biggest demonstrations ever in London. I was in the UK at the time and my daughter Fenella and I immediately knew we should go to London for it. We took Mark, Fenella’s husband and, at the time, a March virgin. He took the photo I am trying to insert here – with Hannah in her pushchair and a placard – Three Generations against the War. The whole of central London was so packed that we just had to park the car and join whichever bit of the march was close by at the time. I remember that we happened to end up in the middle of a group of poets – under a placard that said “Poets against the War.” I also remember walking back at the end of the march past lines and lines of parked buses in Hyde Park from all corners of the UK – Aberdeen, Clovelly, Lincoln, Penrhyndaedreth. We didn’t succeed, of course. Blair went to war anyway but his reputation never recovered.

So, part of my sadness at watching the footage of truckers is to see their aggression and how manipulated by extremists they are, and remembering how much fun we had when we didn’t need to bring tanks of fuel to demonstrations.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 4.24

1479 BC – Thutmose III ascends to the throne of Egypt, although power effectively shifts to Hatshepsut (according to the Low Chronology of the 18th dynasty). 1183 BC – Traditional reckoning of the Fall of Troy marking the end of the legendary Trojan War, given by chief librarian of the Library of Alexandria Eratosthenes, among others. 1547 – Battle of Mühlberg. Duke of Alba, commanding Spanish-Imperial forces of Charles I of Spain, defeats the troops of Schmalkaldic League. 1558 – Mary, Queen of Scots, marries the Dauphin of France, François, at Notre Dame de Paris. 1704 – The first regular newspaper in British Colonial America, The Boston News-Letter, is published. 1793 – French revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat is acquitted by the Revolutionary Tribunal of charges brought by the Girondin in Paris. 1800 – The United States Library of Congress is established when President John Adams signs legislation to appropriate $5,000 to purchase "such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress". 1837 – The great fire in Surat city of India caused more than 500 deaths and destruction of more than 9000 houses. 1877 – Russo-Turkish War: Russian Empire declares war on Ottoman Empire. 1885 – American sharpshooter Annie Oakley is hired by Nate Salsbury to be a part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West. 1895 – Joshua Slocum, the first person to sail single-handedly around the world, sets sail from Boston, Massachusetts aboard the sloop "Spray". 1913 – The Woolworth Building, a skyscraper in New York City, is opened. 1914 – The Franck–Hertz experiment, a pillar of quantum mechanics, is presented to the German Physical Society. 1915 – The arrest of 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Istanbul marks the beginning of the Armenian genocide. 1916 – Easter Rising: Irish rebels, led by Patrick Pearse and James Connolly, launch an uprising in Dublin against British rule and proclaim an Irish Republic. 1916 – Ernest Shackleton and five men of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition launch a lifeboat from uninhabited Elephant Island in the Southern Ocean to organise a rescue for the crew of the sunken Endurance. 1918 – World War I: First tank-to-tank combat, during the second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux. Three British Mark IVs meet three German A7Vs. 1922 – The first segment of the Imperial Wireless Chain providing wireless telegraphy between Leafield in Oxfordshire, England, and Cairo, Egypt, comes into operation. 1924 – Thorvald Stauning becomes premier of Denmark (first term). 1926 – The Treaty of Berlin is signed. Germany and the Soviet Union each pledge neutrality in the event of an attack on the other by a third party for the next five years. 1932 – Benny Rothman leads the mass trespass of Kinder Scout, leading to substantial legal reforms in the United Kingdom. 1933 – Nazi Germany begins its persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses by shutting down the Watch Tower Society office in Magdeburg. 1944 – World War II: The SBS launches a raid against the garrison of Santorini in Greece. 1953 – Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. 1955 – The Bandung Conference ends: Twenty-nine non-aligned nations of Asia and Africa finish a meeting that condemns colonialism, racism, and the Cold War. 1957 – Suez Crisis: The Suez Canal is reopened following the introduction of UNEF peacekeepers to the region. 1963 – Marriage of Princess Alexandra of Kent to Angus Ogilvy at Westminster Abbey in London. 1965 – Civil war breaks out in the Dominican Republic when Colonel Francisco Caamaño overthrows the triumvirate that had been in power since the coup d'état against Juan Bosch. 1967 – Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when its parachute fails to open. He is the first human to die during a space mission. 1967 – Vietnam War: American General William Westmoreland says in a news conference that the enemy had "gained support in the United States that gives him hope that he can win politically that which he cannot win militarily". 1970 – China launches Dong Fang Hong I, becoming the fifth nation to put an object into orbit using its own booster. 1970 – The Gambia becomes a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations, with Dawda Jawara as its first President. 1980 – Eight U.S. servicemen die in Operation Eagle Claw as they attempt to end the Iran hostage crisis. 1990 – STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery. 1990 – Gruinard Island, Scotland, is officially declared free of the anthrax disease after 48 years of quarantine. 1993 – An IRA bomb devastates the Bishopsgate area of London. 1996 – In the United States, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 is passed into law. 2004 – The United States lifts economic sanctions imposed on Libya 18 years previously, as a reward for its cooperation in eliminating weapons of mass destruction. 2005 – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is inaugurated as the 265th Pope of the Catholic Church taking the name Pope Benedict XVI. 2011 – WikiLeaks starts publishing the Guantanamo Bay files leak. 2013 – A building collapses near Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing 1,129 people and injuring 2,500 others. 2013 – Violence in Bachu County, Kashgar Prefecture, of China's Xinjiang results in death of 21 people.

[ianchisnall]

Does your MP support #RightToRoam ?

Does your MP support #RightToRoam ?

Yesterday I wrote about an Early Day Motion (EDM 1068) that my MP, Caroline Lucas published back on the 14th March. It is a document set out with “That this House notes that 24 April marks the 90th anniversary of the mass trespass onto Kinder Scout; acknowledges that this trespass united the campaign for access to the countryside and eventually contributed to the establishment of the UK’s first…