Search results

One day in the early 1520s John Byrcham, Robert Saumon, Bartholomew Storme and Robert Wyndell of Whitby went out fishing. As they headed back to port with their catch they were intercepted by a French warship and taken prisoner. They negotiated a ransom of £22 6s 8d to free themselves, their ship and their fish, and Byrcham went into Whitby and on to Bridlington to get the money from the ship's owners, a widow called Elizabeth Dodys and William Browneflete, head of the town's rich Augustinian Priory. Byrcham returned and paid off the French, who let the ship go. The crew's relief did not last long, as they were captured by Scottish raiders before they could get back to harbour. The Whitby fishermen's story belongs to the hidden history of Henry VIII's wars. Henry's posturing in European politics is well enough known, but the full impact of his wars on the people he ruled tends to be overlooked. Our attention is irresistibly drawn elsewhere: to his attacks on the church, the bloody politics of his court, or the social strains of enclosure, inflation and popular revolt. Yet Henry's people spent something like half his reign at war, against the French, the Scots, the Gaelic lords of Ireland, rebels at home, or even England's traditional allies in the Low Countries.

Abstract: The paper offers the English perspective on the Dutch Hammock case. After an analysis of statutory and common law, particularly consumer protection and occupier's liability, the author comes to the conclusion that the victim would not be successful in an English court under the present scenario. Although it cannot be excluded that the English judiciary might follow its Dutch counterpart in the future, such drastic change seems quite improbable at present.

The NHS, yet again, is in transition with an emphasis on groups of general practitioners (GPs) (clinical commissioning groups) making decisions on which specialist services should be chosen for patients requiring referral from primary care. It is an area of new terminology with a new language and further change for all working in the NHS and the all-important interface between primary and secondary care, and its impact on teamwork. There are many drivers including choice, efficiency, franchising of services, coordination and leadership in an enormous organisation, but not least reducing costs and keeping to a budget. There are many logistical issues and ethical anxieties, and only time will inform patients, practitioners, stakeholders and politicians as to its success.