Friday, June 24, 2005

100 years ago

The third and concluding day of the Grand Yorkshire Gala, in Bootham Park, York, was again favoured with good weather. The various attractions included acrobats, a firework display, and the "Centaur" steam roundabout, the horses of which were fitted with the heads and countenances of famous British officers.

Major-General RSS Baden-Powell, CB, attended the event and viewed the grand military display of the Hussars. The flower tents in the afternoon were thronged, and the performance of the bands of the Royal Scots Greys and the 18th Hussars and the York Artillery Volunteers were much appreciated. The attendance on the last day reached the satisfactory figure of 11,963, which was a substantial increase upon that of the final day the previous year.

50 years ago

A call for the early ending of coal rationing for the domestic market was made in the Commons. MP Gerald Nabarro, who was speaking on the motion for the adjournment, said that the position regarding domestic supplies for the following winter appeared to be "pretty perilous". "It would be no exaggeration to say that the coal position was worse than at any time since the great freeze-up of 1947." The domestic market took only 32,000,000 tons a year of coal imports, and to end domestic rationing would increase demand only by 2,000,000 tons a year. "Is it really beyond our capacity," he asked, "to buy 2,000,000 tons more from European or other countries at a cost of £12,000,000 to end this wretched system?" Continuation of domestic rationing was indefensible, and should be ended as soon as possible.

25 years ago

MP Tom Torney hit out at the "stupid" Common Market directive which would make it illegal from the following week to sell seeds under 1,700 names which were being used in Britain. The Ministry of Agriculture, as a consumer protection measure to ensure that gardeners would know what they were buying, had defended the edict. But the MP for Bradford South and vice chairman of Labour's influential Food and Agriculture Committee denounced it as "seed censorship". He said: "Once more the Common Market is trying to force us to change our centuries-old customs. Why should we not be allowed to call a variety of cucumber, for instance, Burpless Green King, just because some bureaucrat in Brussels tells us we can't?"

Updated: 10:40 Friday, June 24, 2005