Old Scottish Statutes Revisited

After the recent exciting posting about the Incest Act 1567, a solitary loyal reader clamoured for more of the same.

Well, here we have another fairly interesting (yawn, yawn) Act from the same year, and what makes this of interest is that I have only just noticed that the Acts passed in 1567 were passed during the minority of James VI of Scotland (and I of England) (ie when he was too young to govern - he was one year old).

In his stead was a Regent. And that Regent was our old nutball friend, James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray.

And why is the 1st Earl of Moray a friend of this blog?

A loyal reader or two may remember a number of startling facts about the Earl, previously disclosed here -

http://almax.wordpress.com/2006/08/27/beelzebubs-got-a-devil-for-a-sideboard/

but well worth repeating -

He was the half-brother of Mary, Queen of Scots

After Mary was forced to abdicate in favour of the infant James VI in 1567, Moray managed to jump in as Regent, and started legislating at a furious pace.

On 23 January 1570, while still Regent, Moray was travelling from Edinburgh to Glasgow via Linlithgow (not by Scotrail otherwise he’d have been seriously delayed).

One of Mary’s supporters assassinated him just at about the spot where Linlithgow Sheriff Court now stands.

Moray was the first head of state in the world to be assassinated BY GUN (then only a recent invention).

Anyway, during his first flush of legislating Moray made numerous laws including the Incest Act which lasted for over 400 years. Of somewhat less longevity was this enactment abolishing the Pope (or something like that) -

2. Anent the abolishing of the Pope, and his usurped authority.

ITEM, Our Sovereign Lord, with advice of his dearest Regent, and three Estates of this present Parliament, ratifies and approves the Act underwritten, made in the Parliament held at Edinburgh the 24th day of August, the year of God 1560 years. And of new in this present Parliament, statutes and ordains the said Act to be as a perpetual Law, to all our Sovereign Lord’s Lieges, in all times coming. Of the which the tenour follows: ITEM the three Estates understanding that the jurisdiction and authority of the Bishop of Rome, called the Pope, used within this Realm in times bypast, has not only been contumelious to the eternal God, but also very hurtful and prejudicial to our Sovereign’s authority, and common weal of this Realm. THEREFORE it is statute and ordained, that the Bishop of Rome, called the Pope, have no jurisdiction nor authority within this Realm, in any time coming. And that none of our said Sovereign’s subjects, in any times hereafter, sue or desire title or right of the said Bishop of Rome, or his sect, to anything within this Realm, under the pains of Barratry, that is to say, proscription, banishment, and never to bruke [hold] honour, office, nor dignity within this Realm. And the contraveners hereof to be called before the justice or his deputies, or before the Lords of the Session, and punished therefore, conform to the Laws of this Realm. And the furnishers of them, with finance of money, and purchasers of their title of right, or maintainers, or defenders of them, shall incur the same pains. And that no Bishop nor other Prelate of this Realm, use any jurisdiction in time coming, by the said Bishop of Rome’s authority, under the pain foresaid. And therefore of new decerns and ordains, the contraveners of the same, in any time hereafter, to be punished according to the pains in the foresaid Act above rehearsed.

I Did Not Have Sex (or Visit Bosnia Under Fire) With That Woman

As the American elections lumber on, here’s one version of the truth :-

……..and here’s another

Terminal (2)

I posted the previous post at around 7.30am this morning before I went to work.

Things have got much worse throughout the day.

Here’s the deal - queue for hours - if you’ve got a hold bag then it can’t go on the plane - either you travel without your bag or you fuck off.

I watched a hilarious interview with the managing director of BA (or was it BAA? - and what’s the difference?) on Sky news - when asked to explain the shambles he immediately and seamlessly and shamelessly started talking management speak about long term strategy, and successful transposition, and achieving goals and targets,  and customer security, comfort and satisfaction (all of these things patently absent, of course). The guy is just exactly the kind of smug wanker that’s in charge of almost every organisation these days. While Rome burns down round our fucking ears these people are congratulating themselves on ’successful delivery’ or some other piece of meaningless pish, while simultaneously awarding themselves big bonuses and pensions.

For what happened today the entire management responsible  should be sacked. Instead they’ll all get knighthoods.

Terminal

Heathrow Terminal 5 opened for business today, a week or so after the razamatazz of the opening ceremony performed by the Queen.

Some killjoys and hippie-types think Terminal 5 is an environmental disaster, but………..

Terminal 5 promised two things - 1) an end to queueing at checkout desks “there will never be more than one person in front of you” and 2) for your increased security, every passenger will be fingerprinted before boarding (it is not entirely clear to me how that increases passenger security, but let that pass for the moment).

I’ve just been watching the news.

There are fucking massive queues.

No-one is being fingerprinted, because, guess what ………………………..somebody discovered last night that it’s against the law !!!

These people just make it up as they go along -  they could easily get a job running Scotrail.

Cooperman

I noticed something on the news tonight about a torn parachute being found in Washington state, leading to speculation that it might be the parachute used in a daring crime by D B Cooper (Dan Cooper) in 1971.

Those of you who know this fairly well-known story can stop reading here - but for newcomers it may be interesting in a sort of sub-James Bond type way.

Almost all of what follows comes from Wikipedia.

On Wednesday, November 24, 1971, a man travelling under the name Dan Cooper boarded a Boeing 727-100, Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, flying from Portland International Airport in Portland, Oregon to Seattle, Washington. Cooper was described as being in his mid-forties, and between 5 feet 10 inches and 6 feet tall.

Cooper sat in the back of the plane in seat 18C. There were 36 other passengers. After the jet had taken off from Portland, he handed a note to a young flight attendant who was seated in a jumpseat attached to the aft stair door, situated directly behind and to the left of Cooper’s seat. She thought he was giving her his phone number, so she slipped it, unopened, into her pocket. Cooper leaned closer, “Miss, you’d better look at that note. I have a bomb.” In the envelope was a note that read: “I have a bomb in my briefcase. I will use it if necessary. I want you to sit next to me. You are being hijacked.”

The note also provided demands for $200,000, in unmarked $20 bills, and two sets of parachutes—two main back chutes and two emergency chest chutes. The note carried instructions ordering the items to be delivered to the plane when it landed at Seattle-Tacoma airport; if the demands were not met, he would blow up the plane. When the flight attendant informed the cockpit about Cooper and the note, the pilot, William Scott, contacted Seattle-Tacoma air traffic control, who contacted Seattle police and the FBI. The FBI contacted Northwest Orient Airlines president Donald Nyrop, who instructed Scott to cooperate with the hijacker.

Read Wikipedia for the full details of the delivery of the money and the parachutes.

Once the money had been delivered to the plane at Seattle airport, the passengers were released, but the crew were retained on board and the plane took off again on Cooper’s orders.

Once the plane was flying over Washington state, Cooper opened the aft door, lowered the aft stairs and jumped out of the plane never to be seen again. The terrific Wikipedia graphic below tells you all you need to know about his unconventional exit from the plane.

At the time Cooper jumped, the plane was flying through a heavy rainstorm, with no light source coming from the ground due to cloud coverage. Because of the poor visibility, his descent went unnoticed by the United States Air Force F-106 jet fighters tracking the airliner.

Despite an 18-day search of the projected landing zone in 1971, no trace of Cooper or his parachute was found. An exact landing point was difficult to determine, as the plane was being battered by 200 mile per hour winds at the time of Cooper’s jump.

The money (which consisted of $20 bills) never turned up through the banking system - the FBI had photographed all the bills before the money was given to Cooper, so the serial numbers were known, but none of them turned up until in 1980 a boy found $5,880 in decaying bills (a total of 294 $20 bills), still bundled in rubber bands, approximately 40 feet from the waterline and just 2 inches below the surface, on the banks of the Columbia River 5 miles northwest of Vancouver, Washington. These bills were definitely some of the money stolen by Cooper.

The finding of the money re-inforced the FBI’s belief that Cooper had not survived the jump, though since he was never seen again, and no-one has ever satisfactorily established his true identity, quite an industry has grown up in speculating as to who he was and what happened to him. The Wikipedia article contains many other fascinating highways and by-ways for the interested reader to go down.