Please know that I absolutely acknowledge and respect that you are looking out for the economic welfare of your country, but as a frustrated American citizen, I beg of you not to turn to the UK movie industry to bolster that financial need.

When we get tired of the remake upon remake that is the only thing Hollywood is capable of producing lately, we turn to the UK for good, entertaining films. Your call for more commercial British films will give us nothing to look forward to when our own film industry fails us.

I hope there is some viable alternative and that the UK film industry will be allowed to maintain it’s current status as the saving grace of Hollywood.

Most sincerely,

A Desperate American

Plough Monday marks the traditional start to the English agricultural year. It is the first Monday after the Epiphany (6 January) and the tradition dates back to the 15th century.

This is the information I found for the tradition from the Plough Monday website:

In medieval times the ploughboys were supposed to return to work on Plough Monday, the start of the new ploughing season. Instead the plough was paraded through the streets with the aim to extort money from the wealthy landowners.

The exploits of the farmworkers varied, largely depending upon the region of the country they hailed from. Generally, in Cambridgeshire and Norfolk the ploughboys performed a dance called molly dancing, in the North East they danced with swords and in the East Midlands they performed mummers plays. The penance for non-payment was to have the front doorstep pulled up with the plough. The itinerant plough boys, often known as Plough Jacks, Plough Bullocks or Plough Stots, depending on the locality of the custom, would blacken their faces as a disguise, a tradition still practiced today. In the Cambridgeshire Fens children would collect money, often before school, this was known as Ploughwitching. It is known that Plough Monday was recognised as early as the 1400s and at that time was often connected to raising parish funds through the church. Plough guilds often maintained plough lights in the church and money was raised to keep the plough light burning.

Plough Monday in England

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The event was reported by BBC News on 19 October 2011.

I find it interesting that stuff like this still happens. Of course I wouldn’t mind at all if we returned to the sovreignty of the crown. Might make it easier for me to move. LOL

“Police and politicians insisted the disorder was the work of a criminal minority and not a sign of social tensions or security lapses ahead of the 2012 Games.” This statement tells me that UK politicians are just as out of touch with reality as US politicians; at least in part. I agree that the riots are not an indication of security lapses ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games. The safety of the visiting atheletes will be covered not only by the London police, but the national security force (MI-5? -6?) as well as the IOC. However, if these idiots truly believe that the riots are not a sign of social tensions, they need to crack open a history book and take a look at riots of the past. They are always about social tensions. These riots in London bring to mind the riots in Los Angeles, California in 1992. The officers involved were white; the suspect black. If racial tension isn’t a form of social tension, please enlighten me as to what is.

However, having said that, I think that the kids who are rioting are a bit misguided. They are attacking people in their own neighbourhood who are of the same socio-economic status as they are. None of your neighbours or other hard working individuals are the ones who have increased tuition fees for uni or cut funds to public sector pensions. The people who you attacked are the struggling just like you. Just like here in the US, the UK banks should have been left to their own devices. They screwed up, yet all of us hardworking individuals are expected to suck it up and help them. I don’t think this is right by any stretch of the imagination, but what will burning down pubs and blowing up buses truly solve?

“We are going to get people blaming the economy and what happened last week but that’s not the real reason this happened,” said Brixton resident Marilyn Moseley, 49. “It’s just an excuse for the young ones to come and rob shops.” Once again, it is the economy, because people are seeing things that they believe are rightfully theirs, taken away and they have no control. Although I can’t see any young person who truly wants to go to uni participating in something like this, I cannot say for sure they wouldn’t because I’ve never been in that position.

But what it all boils down to is this: where are the parents in all this mess? Sat at home encouraging their children to destroy property? Sat at home clueless or helpless? I imagine there are plenty of parents across the UK who don’t want to be told how to raise (discipline) their child, but at the same time, won’t take responsibility for what they allow their children to do.