November 2024
The Victorians – Graham Stirrup
Graham Stirrup returned to talk about Victorian times, how our ancestors lived and faced dangers.
‘Queen Victoria managed to stay very fit and apart from her extensive breeding didn’t really need doctors. With her large brood she managed to infiltrate most of the royal families in Europe, unfortunately one of her grandsons was the Kaiser.
Life expectancy for the wealthy in general was better than for the masses. Victoria’s empire included India, annexed by her government to grow opium poppies that were sold to the Chinese. This resulted in two opium wars. The Empire gained Hong Kong and continued opium production which was hard on the Indian natives.
At home industry was booming. The Great Exhibition displayed achievements in science and engineering, bringing in wealth. Unfortunately this prosperity didn’t filter down to the masses, who remained in dire circumstances. If you didn’t have a job then you died of starvation or went in the workhouse, a fate worse than death.’
October 2024
Tales of a Customs Officer
Ever wondered what Customs Officers are looking for? Hear Brian Topping tell of his many years during the 1970s and 80s as a serving Customs Officer in the former department of HM Customs and Excise, at Heathrow Airport.
He will provide an interesting, informative and entertaining journey through the many situations he came across when dealing with passengers travelling through the airport and his involvement in apprehending and investigating smugglers.
July 2024
Our final Speaker Meeting of the season on Thursday 11th July featured retired solicitor and u3a member Jeff Vernon on the subject of Consumer Rights.
We are all consumers; we all buy goods and services both in shops and online. Normally all goes well and we are happy with what we have bought but, occasionally, things go wrong. Goods can fail to arrive or can break down very soon after, services may not be carried out satisfactorily. This talk explained the main rights that consumers have when buying goods and services from traders, what remedies are available to them and how best to exercise those remedies.
After first pursuing a career in financial services, Jeff decided to change course and qualified as a solicitor. Jeff worked for a number of large, international firms and finished his career as a partner with DLA Piper UK LLP. His practice area was principally consumer credit law and he led a small team which dealt with all such work arising from all the firms’ offices within the UK. Examples of the work he undertook included drafting the personal contract purchase agreement for Tesla when they commenced selling in this country and advising the UK government when it became necessary for the Student Loans Company to be authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Because he practised consumer credit law, all work with any “consumer” element tended to land on Jeff’s desk. Frequently, this involved advising on issues arising under the Consumer Rights Act, which was the main subject of his talk.
May 2024
On Thursday 9th May we welcomed Dr John Patterson, Principal at St Vincent’s School for visually impaired children, in the Archdiocese of Liverpool. After taking over as Principal in 2012, Dr Patterson set about encouraging students’ entrepreneurialism, employment skills, creativity, and solidarity with those less fortunate. On Wednesdays pupils choose lessons they feel play to their strengths, including in music, drama, sports, ICT, environmental work, and growing food on the school grounds to use in a student-run café. One of his many achievements has been to oversee pupils developing a disability sports toolbox that now helps children in 20 countries across four continents.
He has championed pupils’ leadership skills with an enriched curriculum which has them teaching their international peers in how to use the toolbox, and the Indonesian government has since asked for 70,000 of its social workers to be similarly trained.
The school’s pupils have made ceramic Remembrance poppies worn by leaders including the then-Prime Minister Theresa May; they have sung for the Queen; and have also been featured in an exhibition by celebrity photographer Rankin for the COP26 climate change summit that took place in Glasgow during 2021.
Thank you John for this inspirational talk!
April 2024
On 11th April Russell Parry entertained us with the fascinating story of The Appley Bridge Meteorite.
We heard how, at 8.45 pm on Tuesday 14th October 1914, a large meteorite landed at Halliwell Farm, Up Holland. Locals at first mistook the explosion and fireball for a German invasion, the police were called and promptly confiscated the meteorite. It was then put on display in the village shop and can now be seen in the Natural History Museum in London.
Thank you Russell for this most interesting talk!
March 2024
A large audience gathered on Thursday 14th March to hear magician Pete Turner’s fascinating talk, Through the Eyes of a Magician. Using a series of ‘magic tricks’, including a handkerchief which mysteriously found its way into one member’s wallet, Pete demonstrated how the seemingly impossible can appear to happen before our eyes. This was a very entertaining and thought-provoking talk, very much enjoyed by all who attended. Thank you Pete!
February 2024
The first Speaker Meeting of the year took place on Thursday 8th February, when Angela Danby returned with more extraordinary tales from her time as a reporter with the Southport Visiter. Angela was a print journalist for almost 20 years. During that time, she worked as a news editor, features editor, sub editor and crime corresponden
We heard about the history of the Southport Visiter (originally literally aimed at visitors to Southport) and were shown a copy of the first edition, from May 1844. We heard about the horrific murder of Linsey Quy in the 1990s, whose husband was jailed for life in 2001 for her murder, and also the murder of Nigel Bostock in 1986.
Thank you Angela for an interesting and entertaining talk!