Duggies Ramblings Sept 23

Many people of all ages will have dipped their toes into the sea, river or lake during this summer. One of the funniest sights was to see a young man displaying Love Island masculinity enter the sea and hastily retreat as the seawater reached his knees!

However, many braver people plunged in regardless of the temperature with varying degrees of skill in the cold and alien environment.

Once observed -some time ago- young men leave a pub (they closed at 2pm in the 1960s), plunge into the sea only to be rescued by the local lifeboat after their failed inebriated attempt to swim across the channel to France- from Ramsgate!

I wonder whether the names- Mr Justice Chamberlain or/and Quobno Ottobah Cugoano are known? They lived in different times.

Cugoano lived in the 18th century ,he came to England as a slave ,where he was freed by his master, was baptised, learned to read and write. With his fellow abolitionists, Olaudah Equino and William Wilberforce MP he attended St James church Piccadilly, London. Cugoano wrote a tract, entitled-‘Thoughts and sentiments on the Evil and Wicked traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species humbly submitted to the Inhabitants of Great Britain’– published in 1787-still in print today.

Cugoano was an example of ‘The better angels of our nature’ The slave trade was abolished in ENGLAND in 1807 signed off by King George III. Ownership of slaves was not abolished until 1830s. The slave owners were compensated ,but not the slaves.

Mr Justice Chamberlain KC is a High Court Judge. He has come to public attention for his criticism of the Government(specifically the Departments of Justice and the Home Office and the civil servants of those departments) for the failure in their legal duty of care towards the children asylum seekers to this country.

Kent C C could not cope financially with the burden but has received no additional funding from the government. The Department of Education led by the Education Secretary failed to make any provision for these children which is their legal duty.

When the children have been move into hotels outside Kent, the government has failed to appoint anyone ‘in loco parentis’.

The result? 500 children went missing and 150 are still unaccounted for.

”They are not,” as Mr Justice Chamberlain stated ,”children who have run away from the care system, they never entered the care system in the first place.”

On a lighter note. a notable person was guest speaker at the Vintners annual dinner. The sister of a convent at dinner with her fellow sisters, tapped her glass, “Sisters, I have solemn and important news, we have a case of gonorrhea.”

          “Well”, one sister said,” I hope it’s better than this Liebfraumilch!”