The rich get richer and the poor get poorer!

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer! An old saying but truer today than ever before. The people lost the plot back in the seventies when it appears they were lied to by the then UK Prime Minister who took the country into a Common Market aware at the time it was the corner stone for the development of the European Super State.

In the period since that momentous event Brussels has destroyed competition and allowed large corporations to control what we buy and at what price and if the reports we read in the newspapers are true, they have managed to escape through some complicated system from paying taxes. The people this has affected most are the ones on the lower level of income, especially the elderly whose annual state pension in value is less than pocket money for the wealthy, and the yearly increase does not keep up with real inflation.

I wonder if June twenty third (BREXIT) will be the turning point it was when the people in the street came to realise how he and she are being cheated by Government and the conglomerates who take away a little piece at a time from their standard of living. I do hope that Theresa May and her Ministers have the ability to turn all this around, but somehow I doubt it as there are powerful forces at work to stop her.  http://www.percychatteybooks.com

Remembering The Blitz by the Media

As we fall on the 75th anniversary of the London Blitz there has been a swathe of remembrance articles and photos in the popular media (TV, radio and Newspapers)… here is just a sleection of the ones I found.

BBC:
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BBC Search : http://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=london%20blitz

“The Blitz families who built a city underground”
Seventy five years ago the Luftwaffe started its attempt to bomb Britain into submission. As explosives rained down, residents in many cities sought shelter underground. Thousands headed to the Chislehurst Caves in Kent, which over time became a subterranean city, writes Claire Bates.

“Blitz Spirit”
To mark the 75th anniversary of the start of the London Blitz, Diane Louise Jordan reflects on the fortitude and solidarity that got people across Britain through the terror of the nightly air raids during The Blitz.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06bgp0l
“Blitz Cities: London”
To mark the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the Blitz, EastEnders star Shane Richie travels around his home city of London, finding out what it was like to live through the worst attack in Britian’s history.

Guardian
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“London’s night of fires: the beginning of the Blitz”
Seventy-five years ago, the second world war bombing campaign known as the blitz began in earnest. On the afternoon of 7 September 1940, 348 German bombers and more than 600 Messerschmitt fighters flew over southern England before dropping high-explosive and incendiary bombs on London. The raid ended at 6:10pm but as the docks area of the city’s East End burned, a second attack lasting eight hours took place that night.

http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/sep/02/blitz-london-bomb-sites-redevelopment
“Blitzed, rebuilt and built again: what became of London’s bomb sites?”

The Express
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“The Blitz Spirit – 75 years on!”
WE CAN take it!’ That was the unofficial motto of the British people in 1940 as bombs began to rain down during the Second World War. To celebrate that iron resolve we reveal 40 fascinating facts about one of the most stirring episodes in our history…

Money Week
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“7 September 1941: the Blitz begins”
After failing to take out Britain’s fighter command in the Battle of Britain, the Luftwaffe changed tactics. It decided it would terrorise Britain’s population into submission. And so on this day in 1941, it began an eight-month campaign of bombing Britain’s main cities. 350 bombers crossed the channel and headed for London, where they dropped 300 tonnes of explosives. Day and night (mainly night) the bombs fell. On that first night, almost 2,000 people were killed or wounded. Within a month, 6,000 were dead, and by the end of the campaign, 40,000 had lost their lives.

The Daily Beast
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“London, 75 Years After Destruction”
On this day, 75 years ago, the Nazis began their aerial assault on London. Intended to demoralize the Brits, it backfired.
The unofficial motto of the citizens of London during the Blitz was “business as usual.”  The times, however, were anything but.  Britain was locked in a conflict, as Prime Minister Winston Churchill memorably put it, “against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime.” …

 

The VE DAY 70 Celebrations

Saturdays evening’s programme on BBC, 9th May celebrating seventy years since the end of the Second World War was very good. (If you are in the UK, you might still catch it on the BBC iPlayer Channel)

The clips they used to emphasise parts of the war, which had been taken from old newsreels portraying events of that time, brought back strong memories – the sound of the air raid warning giving a short burst of fear reminiscent of the feeling created in the forties by that sound.

In my book ‘Blitz & Pieces’ I describe in detail the horror, the constant fear and the day to day stress because of the continuous attacks by the enemy on a non military population. Living below ground level in a cold steel shelter hoping it was strong enough to give you protection against the bombs falling outside. People were being killed on a basis not experienced before by civil inhabitants. I clearly remember my close friend at school crying all day because his father had been killed that morning by a bomb, however there was no time for mourning and schooling continued. All true because I was there.

Beside the savage attacks on our way of life there was another difficulty, equal in some ways only that it added to the total discomfort. The shortage of goods and the severe rationing of supplies, food to clothing, created other problems. The allowable clothing coupons issued on a monthly basis, for a growing family of three was not adequate, with the consequence if an article got too tight, and there was no voucher available then the continuous use of it was the only answer. Shoes were the worst it was either go bare foot or wear tight shoes and hobble along.

Blitz & Pieces is available through Amazon / CreateSpace on-line.

They got it covered in the Roundtown News

My autobiography was recently featured in the Roundtown News Life section. Genre: Autobiography – Buy “Blitz and Pieces” online!

ISBN-10: 1484881788 / ISBN-13: 978-1484881781
AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY: Percy Chattey writes his true story about growing up in the East End of London during the horror of the Second World War.

He writes how he lived through months of nightly bombings, sleeping in cold damp shelters and how school was neglected for the war effort. The story continues with Percy’s struggle to find work as a war teen, joining the forces, starting, building & losing a successful business to finding the love of his life.
But then reality hits hard…

I Like This! – Book Dominoes

Well you can’t do this with your Kindle or eReader!  The message is clear READ MORE REAL BOOKS.

So I share this post form Huff Books: Seattle Public Library just set an unusual world record in its incredible flagship building: the world’s longest book domino chain (see the video).

Seattle Public Library “Book Domino” Event

Created to launch its summer reading program, 2,131 books were used in the service of this magical video that you can watch above, filmed on May 31st. Our favorite part? The silent summer readers sitting among the books as they quietly fell around them.

Just don’t try this at home kids, unless you’re prepared to pick them all up afterwards

Taking on Amazon. A greedy monopoly?

On the HUFF BOOK site … Three independent bookstores are taking the likes of Amazon and the so-called Big Six publishers (Random House, Penguin, Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Macmillan) to court in an attempt to level the playing field for book retailers.

If successful, the lawsuit could completely change how ebooks are sold.

The main complaint is that the digital locking of eBook files prevent them being used on different devices. This is called “digital rights management”, or DRM, stops consumers from transferring any eBook they buy on an Amazon Kindle onto, say, a Nook or Kobo eReader.

Why are books different from other media. Why can’t we have a universal format… (I suspect the usual answer is GREED! – they want as much money for themsleves as possible – you the consumer can go take a hike!!)

Can you imagine in the days of 45’s records, if you couldn’t take your prized Elvis single to play on their Philips radio-gram but you could if he had a Bush ??

Their is JUST TOO MUCH control of digital media – it’s for sharing and distributing. I think Apple started all this malarkey with their iTunes.

STOP IT – One format for all devices please !!

You can but dream… by royal appointment.

As an author (or any creative person) you must dream that one day your work is appreciated and liked by many. At least enough to make the effort worthwhile and that you know other’s enjoy your work. … you can but dream right?

Well our nobel UK Queen is poorly this week – I hope she is well soon and resumes reading my new thriller book “The Black Venus”  … (I heard she reads it on her diamond encrusted Kindle whilst on the throne!)

There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. W. Somerset Maugham

Internet millionaires who are tapping into YouTube

YouTube Fame: Ray William Johnson has become one of the highest earners on YouTube after coining in a reported $1million a year for his own series. Mr Johnson is one of the most successful of a new generation of Internet millionaires who are tapping into YouTube’s enormous reach. Given that Google pays up to $9,000 for every two million views, he has now earned a fortune by completely bypassing traditional TV networks. Mr Johnson is one of the most successful of a new generation of Internet millionaires who are tapping into YouTube’s enormous reach. According to the Wall St Journal more than 780million people now watch YouTube every month, which is more than many cable TV networks
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

» See Ray on YouTube