Christopher John Myers

We’re seven months away from Germany’s declaration of war on Russia 1914 and her invasion of Belgium and France.   As any schoolboy knows this was German’s realisation of almost a decade’s planning to build an empire - the 1905 Schlieffen Plan .   It was, of course, the prelude to the First World War. Now, as we prepare to commemorate that event (for heaven’s sake, WHY?) our politicians are trying to re-write history. The Labour Party’s   education spokesman, Tristram Hunt, writing in the Guardian , says it is “crass” and “ugly” to blame the Germans. It was “shocking”, he said to focus on a “militaristic Germany bent on warmongering and imperial aggression”. Education Secretary Michael Gove , of course, kicked the row off by moaning about the BBC’s portrayal of the British forces as Donkeys led by upper class twits in the manner of Blackadder. Thankfully Boris Johnson, writing in The Daily Telegraph provides some sense. Skewering the revisionist social...

Google acts on copycat rip-off government websites In the wake of the ‘Heartbleed’ web disaster, here’s some good news – Google has agreed to block those copycat web sites that charge rip-off prices for Government services, some of which are free, like the European health insurance cards. We were nearly caught out by one of these sites, which are sometimes designed to look like official government, ‘.gov’, sites. Google has agreed to remove these listings from the top of their search pages, but it appears that they will still appear in the listing results.  One of the biggest rip offs was a   an "official UK passport application" sites which paid Google, through their adwords auction, to appear above the official government site and persuaded people to part with £112.50 for a passport, compared with the £72.50 real price. Google says consumers can submit complaints about misleading ads to its Adwords feedback. We should all do that!  More news h...

For those of you without FaceBook, enjoy this recent selection, inspired by Mick Woollett... Bob Berry and 4 other people commented on this. Bob Berry created the group Bike journalists '70s and '80s. Unlike · · 11 February at 00:31 · You and Nigel Tye like this. Bob Berry I'd like all you old scribes to join in please. In memory of John Brown. He'd love it! 11 February at 00:34 · Like Bob Berry Also in memory of the venerable Jim Greening, the marvelous Charlie Rous ('dear boy') and Norrie Whyte. All good men when MCN was selling 196,000 copies a week. Is Mick Woollett out there? 11 February at 00:41 · Like Bob Berry Then there is Nick Harris. And Andy McGovern. And Robin Miller - in charge of MCN in 1972. I know that. He employed me. And Bruce Cox. 11 February at 00:46 · Like Bob Berry I suppose I'll have to include the incomparable John Noble. Plucked fro...