England to Brussels

Doug was a great host taking us here and there to see things we wouldn't have seen on our own.  AND, taking us to catch the 6:37 am Eurostar train at Ebbsfleet.  Thanks Doug!!!

Approaching Brussels.  The train went fast and was very quiet.  About 100 minutes from Ebbsfleet Station to Brussels. 

Getting ready to get off the train. 

My cousin had a therapy session, so we had lunch at the hospital.  I've never seen a restaurant quite like this one in a hospital. 

View from our hotel.  It's still gray, bur a bit warmer than UK.

View from my cousin's flat. 

After dinner, some cars had moved, leaving that one on the left sitting way out there by itself.  It's been a long day, so the pictures will have to suffice. 

What's Happening with the British Election?

Results:  Election seats/Percent of Parliament/Percent of Vote  (From BBC)



Conservative seats:  306 (47%)-  36% of Vote

Labour seats:  258 (29%)  - 29% of vote

Lib Dem seats:  57 (9%)   - 23% of vote

Other parties:   28  (4%)  - 12%


There is one seat still undecided because of a death that pushed the election back.


Voter turnout is pegged at 65%, up 4% from the 2005 election.


As best as I can figure this out, here's what's happening:

1.  No party has a majority.  The Conservatives got the most votes, but not enough to form a majority government.

2  They can either work out a coalition with another party(ies) that would give them collectively a majority or try to form a minority government.  A minority government would seem to run into problems and there would be a likelihood of a new election within a year. 

3.  The two other main parties, Labour and Liberal Democrats, are ideologically closer together than either is to the Conservatives and if the Conservatives can't form a coalition, Labour and the Lib Dems could, conceivably, form a majority government.

4.  However, the leader of the Lib Dems, Nick Clegg, doesn't like leader of Labour, Gordon Brown, and has even said in the campaign that he couldn't work with Brown.  On the radio today they are talking about a heated phone conversation Friday between Clegg and Brown, which they deny.  Brown does seem to have been a serious problem for many people who might otherwise have voted Labour.

5.  There seem to be some attempts by the Conservatives to work out an agreement with the Lib Dems.  But they have serious ideological differences including integration with Europe (Conservatives against, Lib Dems for) and electoral reform (Conservatives against, Lib Dems for.) 

6.  A major issue for the Lib Dems is proportional representation. You can see why the Lib Dem Party is so strongly for proportional voting  from the numbers at the top.  While they got 27% of the vote, they only got 9% of the seats.   I'll address this issue below. 

7.  Splits seem to be coming out into the open in all the parties.  Conservatives are angry with their leadership for failing to win a majority.  Lib Dems are concerned about their leader making an agreement with the Conservatives.  One Labour MP has called for Gordon Brown to step down.

8.  The first Green Party MP was elected Thursday.

9.  Meanwhile, the Constitution allows the sitting Prime Minister to continue as head of the government until a new government is formed.  So, despite Conservatives calling for him to step down because so many Labour seats have gone to the Conservatives (about 95), Brown is holding his position and looking for ways to work with the Lib Dems.


What about Proportional Representation? 

The Observer has an article on this but I can't find it online.  In the US, primary elections tend to narrow the race to two main parties with minor party candidates who tend not to get many votes.  Here, there are a number of parties and so it can happen that a party like the Lib Dems can get a lot of votes in many districts, but mostly come in second or third.  Conversely, the Conservatives were able to win a lot of seats, but with less than 50% of the vote.  So there are four options that the Observer listed today that are on the table for electoral reform.  Basically they involve more complicated ranking schemes - you vote for more than one candidate ranking them 1, 2, 3, etc.  Then if there is no majority, the bottom candidate is dropped and the second choice for those voters is calculated.   The four options the Observer lists are:
1.  First past the post - the current system.  Each district picks an MP and the MP's pick the Prime Minister.

2.  Alternative vote (AV)  - Rank the candidates


3.  Alternative vote (AV+) - Same as two, with the addition of a list of party candidates.  I don't totally understand this one.


4.  Single transferable vote (STV)  - Bigger constituencies with more than one MP.  Again, this one isn't really clear to me. 


Here's a website that lists these options and a couple more if you want to see more detail.




What's next?  It seems to me, that if Labour got rid of Brown at the top, then there would be a greater chance of forming an alliance with the Lib Dems. 

London Tube 11:30pm Friday Night

From Woodlands Jr. School:

London comprises the City of London, and the 32 boroughs, of which 13 are in Inner London and 19 are in Outer London. It is a growing city spreading out and 'swallowing' many villages and towns in the south east of England. Because of this, there are many conflicting definitions of London and Greater London and the population of London varies accordingly.

London, the capital of England and the UK, occupies over 620 square miles and is the most populous city in the European Union, with over 7 million residents. London’s population is heavily concentrated (at about 4,539 people per sq km/11,568 per sq mi)

2001 Census

London's population was 7,172,000 on the latest Census Day of April 2001. This is 14.6 per cent of the total population of Britain. The population in 2005 was thought to have been about 7,518,000.

Canterbury Cathedral

It rained on and off today as we went Kent, the next county south of Essex, and visited Rochester - a place where Dickens lived - and then Canterbury to see the famous cathedral.

From the Cathedral's website:

St Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury, arrived on the coast of Kent as a missionary to England in 597 AD. He came from Rome, sent by Pope Gregory the Great. It is said that Gregory had been struck by the beauty of Angle slaves he saw for sale in the city market and despatched Augustine and some monks to convert them to Christianity.  [I know it was a different time and people thought about slaves differently, but it still sounds bizarre to me.]

Augustine's original building lies beneath the floor of the nave– it was extensively rebuilt and enlarged by the Saxons, and the Cathedral was rebuilt completely by the Normans in 1070 following a major fire. There have been many additions to the building over the last nine hundred years, but parts of the quire and some of the windows and their stained glass date from the 12th century.

By 1077, Archbishop Lanfranc had rebuilt it as a Norman church, described as "nearly perfect". A staircase and parts of the North Wall - in the area of the North West transept also called the Martyrdom - remain from that building.

Again from the Cathedral website:

The Nave

The Romanesque Nave was replaced in the 14th century by the one we see today. Its tall columns rise to meet in delicate vaulted arches and gilt roof bosses high over our heads. It is one of the most magnificent surviving examples of English Perpendicular Gothic, designed by Henry Yevele, the King’s Master mason.

The Quire

The Quire was rebuilt and extended after a disastrous fire in 1174 destroyed the earlier structure. Thomas Becket's shrine was placed in the Trinity Chapel in 1220, until it was destroyed in 1538 during the Reformation by order of Henry VIII. The Corona, built as a separate shrine for the a piece of Becket's skull, completes the eastern exterior of the Cathedral in a unique fashion.  Beautiful stained glass windows illustrate miracles and stories associated with St Thomas.

Mrs. Warren's Profession - Photos Added

 Doug arranged that we go into London to meet a friend of his and go to the theater.  We were able to go to the National Portrait Gallery and the National Gallery after getting the tickets - there's a half-price booth in the area - and before the play.

  Both galleries had no photo rules, but we're headed off to Kent soon, so I don' t have time to do the photos I did take. [photos added later]

My impressions of London as a chaotic jumble of monumental buildings with lots of walkways in-between and millions of walkers using them was reinforced.  All these pictures were taken within 1/4 mile or less of each other.


The portrait gallery [left] had some interesting new stuff - including computer generated portraits that were not static and one artist made a bust of his head using various materials including his own blood which is kept in a temperature controlled glass box. There was also an exhibit of Indian Portraits from 1560 - 1860, .  From their website:

"This outstanding exhibition, the first of its kind in the UK, tells the story of the Indian portrait over three centuries, exploring the fascinating ways in which Indian artists have approached the depiction of the human form and the changing role of portraiture in Indian history. Bringing together 60 stunning works from international collections, the exhibition will celebrate the beauty, power and humanity of these works of art."

Then we walked out - across the street was St. Martin's in the Field and then around the corner was Trafalgar Square.

The national museum, which looks out onto Trafalgar Square,  had room after elegant room of paintings of Christ at different ages (mostly babies or on the cross) by artists of different times and different European traditions.


As you can see from the banner, the National Gallery has free admission, as did the National Portrait Gallery, and the British museum.  They only charge for some special exhibits.  The Smithsonian in Washington DC is all free as well.  In Berlin, there was an admission fee for all the museums. 

 Here's Trafalgar Square from the steps of the National Gallery as we came out. 

The play, a George Bernard Shaw classic written in 1894, was well acted, but not terribly exciting.  I did like being in a theater where no mics were used.  The story - a young woman who barely knows her mother finds out the source of the income that has paid for her upbringing and education - still has observations of society that are relevant, but I thought the daughter's reaction to be the most dated.  Also, the daughter, Miss Warren, was the actress who did not project her voice as well as the other actors.

Peter Brown  gives a useful review and his conclusion is close to mine:

Watchable and interesting from a historical perspective, and brave for its time, our views about morality have changed significantly, making 'Mrs Warren's Profession' seem rather tame and quaint.

Punting on the River Cam, Cambridge

The hope had been to go punting on the River Cam which runs through Cambridge, but the weather had been so cold, grey, and windy lately that we weren't sure.  But it turned into a spectacular day that was not only pleasant to walk around in  but it my camera trigger finger go crazy.  So BG, who was a Cambridge student forty years ago, took us punting. 

He managed to stay on the punt the whole way, even when the pole got stuck in the mud.  More impressive is that he got us where he wanted us - through bridges, past other punts, along the shore - without crashing into anything.  This was all done by pushing off with the pole and occasionally using it as a rudder.

He told us where we were all along, but I wasn't taking notes.

The Anchor was near where we returned the punt and seemed like a good lunch spot.

Because BG knew how to punt, we did the self-hire.  And because he was a Cambridge grad he got a discount on top of that. 

And finally we have lunch at the Anchor, the pub we had just passed.  BG did let us know that the weather we had was quite out of the ordinary and that most punting was done in a drizzle.