News Round Up
by Patrick O'Connor
MAGIC potion?
Britain's oldest man, former teacher and church minister Reg Dean, has celebrated his 110th birthday by declaring: “I want to live to 120.”
And in a story in The Sun newspaper, Reg claims the secret to his long life is a mystery potion he drank in India.
Reg, who was posted to Asia as an Army chaplain in World War Two, said: “A doctor said he’d concocted a drink to make you live forever and would I like to take it. I can’t say no, so I drank it and here I am.”
Reg, of Wirksworth in Derbyshire, added: “I remember before tarmac, the roads were dust heaps. I’ve done foolish things and achieved a lot, but I still have two ambitions. I’d like to meet Nelson Mandela and live to 120.”
Reg would probably have plenty of memories of both world wars but that's in stark comparison to half of young Britons, who according to the Daily Telegraph, are unable to name the years the First World War started and ended.
A survey conducted for British Future, a non-partisan body dedicated to exploring issues of national identity, highlighted a “shaky” grasp of even basic concepts about the conflict.
Only 46 per cent of respondents aged 16 to 24 were able to identify 1914 as the year war broke out, while just 40 per cent correctly stated that peace was reached in 1918.
A very flash set of wheels – The Sun reports that an McLaren F1 has become the most expensive modern supercar in history after a British dealer sold it for more than £3.5 million.
Tom Hartley Jr, said: “I think the McLaren F1 is the best car ever built. It was light-years ahead of its rivals and the model that I have sold is undoubtedly one of the best of the road-going F1s ever built.”
'Neonates' – which means a newborn child or mammal – is a word which will stay in the mind of 26 year old Paul Gallen for years to come.
The Independent reports that solicitor Paul, from Belfast, has become the 41st national Scrabble champion after scoring 71 points for neonates in the final in London.
The word gave him an unassailable lead over Wale Fashina, 43, from Liverpool and he picked up a £2,500 cash prize.
Turn that racket down!
According to the Daily Mail, a group of Morris Dancers were ordered to stop performing after police received a complaint that their dancing was “offensive” and causing a noise nuisance.
The 15-strong group of English folk dancers from the Wild Hunt Bedlam Morris troupe were told to ‘stop making a din’ during a performance outside The White Lion pub in Warlingham, Surrey.
Morris dancer David Young said: “It’s the first time we’ve encountered anything like it. We felt treated like yobs. But we’ve got ex-oil executives, business owners and a school secretary in our group.
“We just feel aggrieved that something that has such a long history in the country, at a time when it is hard to keep the old traditions alive, should not be allowed.”
Heart-warming story in The Sun about 70 year old John McCafferty who met up with his surgeon – 30 years after he was given a heart transplant at Harefield Hospital, Middlesex, which was expected to give him five more years to live.
Mr McCafferty, who before the operation had just 10 days to live, wept as he was reunited with Sir Magdi Yacoub. He is the UK's longest-surviving heart transplant patient. In 1982 he was given the heart of a young man who died in a road accident. He later took up swimming, ran half marathons and competed in the British and European Transplant Games.
Finally, the strangest story of the week comes in the Daily Mirror which reveals that disgraced paedophile DJ Jimmy Savile has been given a character reference by Peter Sutcliffe, better known as the Yorkshire ripper who murdered 13 women.
In a tape leaked from Broadmoor Hospital where Sutcliffe is serving 20 life sentences, he accused
hundreds of innocent victims of Savile of “jumping on the bandwagon”.
“These people are just coming out of the woodwork. It’s a load of rubbish. People are just getting carried away.”