‘Beyond the limit of human endurance’: The stolen Manx history of Dunkirk

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 946-995
Author(s):  
David Kneale

This article reappraises the experience of the civilian crews aboard Manx personnel vessels engaged in Operation Dynamo, and the contested aftermath. More than 20,000 troops were retrieved by nine ships of the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, three of which were sunk in and off Dunkirk. There is more than enough material for a heroic narrative to emerge, yet a sense of scandal seems to cling to these particular civilian crews. Various political, social and cultural forces foster distinctly separate narratives between the United Kingdom and Isle of Man. However, empirical research in Manx and UK archives, including access to a hitherto closed file, reveals a different story: that the official Admiralty narrative of Operation Dynamo was intentionally weaponized against the Manx civilian crews for political reasons. This was achieved through the creation of reports that were false, misleading or unsupported by evidence, the provocation of the Isle of Man’s Lieutenant Governor into acts of reprisal, and through the work of an unseen editorial hand in Admiralty archives. The influence of this hostile narrative, which continues to be reinforced, has obscured the contributions of the true civilians of Dunkirk.

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-12
Author(s):  
Duncan Lawson

In terms of the history of mathematics higher education, mathematics and statistics support (MSS) is a very recent development, existing as a formal feature for less than 50 years.  However, in this short time, MSS has displayed its own characteristics.  A particularly notable feature of MSS in the United Kingdom (and in other countries) has been the way in which practitioners have collaborated with each other, almost from the outset.  This collaboration has led to the creation of a community (the sigma network) with a written constitution and formal membership.  This two-part article traces the history of the development of the MSS community in the UK from its earliest incarnations to the present day.  The first part of the article reviews the period from the early 1990s to 2005 during which time the key events were the rise and demise of the Mathematics Support Association and the creation of sigma, Centre of Excellence in University-wide Mathematics and Statistics Support. 


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Woods

Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) is a proposed Mental Disorder, from Elizabeth Newson, in the United Kingdom. While excluded from the two main diagnostic manuals, PDA has garnered much interest and controversy. While originally viewed as a new type of syndrome, a Pervasive Developmental Coding Disorder. Presently there is much focus on PDA as an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), that ignores broader discussions around how PDA should be clinically viewed. Due to arguments against doing that in favour of diagnosing PDA as an ASD. Charting the history of PDA from Newson’s research, through to how four main divergent schools of thought developed. From PDA being viewed as rebranded autism through to symptoms resulting from the interaction between autism and common co-occurring conditions. Conceptualising PDA as a common mental disorder best conforms to Newson’s opinions and research. Various empirical research supports this outlook. PDA can be diagnosed and researched independently of autism. Such an approach is needed to allow its full nature to become clear through scientific-method research.


Author(s):  
Neil Parpworth

This chapter discusses the structure and devolution of the UK. It first sketches the constitutional history of the UK, presenting a brief outline of events that led to the creation of the UK, i.e. the union of England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. The chapter then examines the issue of devolution, which has been particularly important to the people of Scotland and Wales. The key provisions of the devolution legislation enacted in 1998 and more recent legislative developments are reviewed. The chapter concludes by considering the ‘English Question’ and the agreements between the UK Government and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.


Author(s):  
Vlatko Vedral

Every civilization in the history of humanity has had its myth of creation. Humans have a deeply rooted and seemingly insatiable desire to understand not only their own origins but also the origins of other things around them. Most if not all of the myths since the dawn of man involve some kind of higher or supernatural beings which are intimately related to the existence and functioning of all things in the Universe. Modern man still holds a multitude of different views of the ultimate origin of the Universe, though a couple of the most well represented religions, Christianity and Islam, maintain that there was a single creator responsible for all that we see around us. It is a predominant belief in Catholicism, accounting for about one-sixth of humanity, that the Creator achieved full creation of the Universe out of nothing – a belief that goes under the name of creation ex nihilo. (To be fair, not all Catholics believe this, but they ought to if they follow the Pope.) Postulating a supernatural being does not really help explain reality since then we only displace the question of the origins of reality to explaining the existence of the supernatural being. To this no religion offers any real answers. If you think that scientists might have a vastly more insightful understanding of the origin of the Universe compared to that of major religions, then you’d better think again. Admittedly, most scientists are probably atheists (interestingly, more than 95% in the United Kingdom) but this does not necessarily mean that they do not hold some kind of a belief about what the Creation was like and where all this stuff around us comes from. The point is that, under all the postulates and axioms, if you dig far enough, you’ll find that they are as stumped as anyone else. So, from the point of view of explaining why there is a reality and where it ultimately comes from, being religious or not makes absolutely no difference – we all end up with the same tricky question. Every time I read a book on the religious or philosophical outlook of the world I cannot help but recognize many ideas in there as related to some ideas that we have in science.


Author(s):  
Neil Parpworth

This chapter discusses the structure and devolution of the UK. It first sketches the constitutional history of the UK, presenting a brief outline of events that led to the creation of the UK, ie the union of England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. The chapter then examines the issue of devolution, which has been particularly important to the people of Scotland and Wales. The key provisions of the devolution legislation enacted in 1998 and more recent legislative developments are reviewed. The chapter concludes by considering the ‘English Question’, and the agreements between the UK Government and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and the devolution provisions in the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (11) ◽  
pp. 135-139
Author(s):  
Maria Zhukova ◽  
Elena Maystrovich ◽  
Elena Muratova ◽  
Aleksey Fedyakin

Author(s):  
Ros Scott

This chapter explores the history of volunteers in the founding and development of United Kingdom (UK) hospice services. It considers the changing role and influences of volunteering on services at different stages of development. Evidence suggests that voluntary sector hospice and palliative care services are dependent on volunteers for the range and quality of services delivered. Within such services, volunteer trustees carry significant responsibility for the strategic direction of the organiszation. Others are engaged in diverse roles ranging from the direct support of patient and families to public education and fundraising. The scope of these different roles is explored before considering the range of management models and approaches to training. This chapter also considers the direct and indirect impact on volunteering of changing palliative care, societal, political, and legislative contexts. It concludes by exploring how and why the sector is changing in the UK and considering the growing autonomy of volunteers within the sector.


Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 97
Author(s):  
Georgina M. Robinson

In an age where concern for the environment is paramount, individuals are continuously looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint—does this now extend to in one’s own death? How can one reduce the environmental impact of their own death? This paper considers various methods of disposing the human body after death, with a particular focus on the environmental impact that the different disposal techniques have. The practices of ‘traditional’ burial, cremation, ‘natural’ burial, and ‘resomation’ will be discussed, with focus on the prospective introduction of the funerary innovation of the alkaline hydrolysis of human corpses, trademarked as ‘Resomation’, in the United Kingdom. The paper situates this process within the history of innovative corpse disposal in the UK in order to consider how this innovation may function within the UK funeral industry in the future, with reference made to possible religious perspectives on the process.


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